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1.) UConn (#4)

Coming off of back-to-back championships, last year was a trip back down to earth for Hurley and his UConn Huskies. It of course wasn’t a complete failure as they still made the dance and won a game as an 8 seed, but it was a reset as they tried to reload after losing nearly everyone from those 2 championship runs. The last remaining stalwart is Alex Karaban, who is back for his final season, and the young talent that Hurley has brought in is sticking around in large part, with guys like Ball, Stewart and Ross all back attempting to grow into larger roles. At the end of the day, we know this will be a well coached team and the transfer backcourt additions should improve what was a relative weak point last year with Mahaney disappointing and the group being the worst shooting team here since 2021. Depth was also an issue for them last year and boy did Hurley fix that as he has brought in a ton of talent, all of which just simply can’t play this year, but to have them able to compete for time and push each other in practice is a fantastic sign. It might be hard to hold on to them all, but to have amassed this much talent has to lead you to believe Hurley is going to find a group of 8-9 guys that can contend with anyone in the country given the proven commodities he has at his disposal. I have no idea how the rotation will sort out, aside from Ball and Karaban, but it’s an embarrassment of riches for a HC that has built enough trust to believe this is going to be one of the best teams in the country, not just the Big East.

2.) St. John’s (#6)

I have immense respect for Rick Pitino and what he’s doing with St. John’s is just cementing his legacy as one of the all-time coaches in college basketball. Last year ended on a bit of a sour note though, losing in the 2nd round amidst a benching of star player RJ Luis. Outside of that, bringing St. John’s back to life and winning the Big East in year 2 is an awesome accomplishment and by the looks of it they’ll be right back in contention this year. Granted, there are a few question marks given all the talent that is leaving the program, but this transfer class is about as good as it gets across the country. You have two guys coming in with Hopkins and Mitchell who can play the 4 spot next to Ejiofor who is back to dominate the paint so the froncourt will be a strength. Their big weakness last year was scoring the ball and it’s inarguable that the guards Jackson, Sellers, Sanon and Darling are a better group of guards scoring the ball than they had last year. They may take a step back defensively from what they were last year but I fully expect a top-50 offense this year which should make up for a small step back on the other end. Expect The Garden to be rocking all year long once again and expect a better finish to the year from St. John’s who should absolutely be a national contender.

3.) Creighton (#18)

Greg McDermott continues to churn out successful season after successful season here at Creighton, and while it hasn’t produced much hardware they are still one of the perennial contenders in the conference and have made the dance 5 straight years, winning at least 1 game in each and reaching the 2nd weekend 3 of those trips. No Final 4’s or national titles, but you can’t talk about college basketball without at least considering what Creighton is doing in the Big East. Now, much of last year’s team is out, but there are several young pieces back looking to step into a larger role and the transfer class is very solid. I love the duo coming over from Iowa as both Dix and Freeman are fantastic fits in McDermott’s fast paced system. The returning bigs playing around Freeman will give them a very solid front court, the big question is going to be at the 2-3 spots. They have several options there, with mid major transfers Graves and Harper being good experienced options but the FR Greer and young transfer Swartz, a top-60 recruit to Miami last year, should both contend for minutes there as well. If a couple of those guys really hit and can contribute then I think Creighton can join UConn and St. John’s in the top tier of this conference, but for now I’ll keep them a step behind just due to the question marks in that backcourt. Nevertheless, I expect it to be 6 straight trips to the dance, with the outside chance that duo of Dix and Freeman have enough around them to be Final 4 threats.

4.) Marquette

There are very few programs across the country that are as tight of a ship as this Marquette program under Shaka Smart. This is now 2 years in a row that he hasn’t taken in a transfer, and with just one player exiting via the portal they win the roster continuity award by a mile. Of course, you have to be concerned about how heavily they leaned on dynamic playmakers like Tyler Kolek and Kam Jones who are now gone with no obvious guys filling those voids. That’s where the lack of using the transfer portal could come back to bite them, but one thing we know for sure is they are going to be a nightmare defensively. They were top-20 in the country each of the last 2 seasons at forcing TO’s, their big issue last year was allowing offensive rebounds. That’s an even bigger concern than the scoring deal because they added nothing to change that on the interior. That’s why I have them outside of my top-25 to start the year, and while I respect what Shaka is doing by bringing in FR, developing them and ultimately rewarding their loyalty by giving them the shot to grow into starting roles, it makes it difficult to fill holes when they arise. They desperately need Royce Parham to make a leap forward and a guy like Josh Clark who redshirted could be important as a 7-footer. At the end of the day I respect Shaka and trust in their defense enough to have them up here, but how they score and control the glass, two major components of the game, will determine just how good they can be. It’s not going to be his best team here, but I expect a 5th straight tourney appearance in year 5 for Shaka who has experienced much more success here than at Texas.

5.) Providence

I’m banking on last year being an aberration as I was uber impressed with Kim English in year 1 with the Friars. Last year just was a disaster ultimately with injury after injury to major contributors. We’ll hope they have much better injury luck and taking a look at the transfer talent that is coming in they should have a lot to work with, especially with Jason Edwards coming in and leading the show. I like Sellers and Floyd next to him and they have some strong frontcourt additions in Powell and Hargrove as well. Overall, I think if all this talent clicks and they get back to defending like they were in year 1 under English they have an outside shot at a tourney berth. They certainly aren’t going to be world beaters, but if they’re hitting their ceiling it won’t be fun traveling to Providence, Rhode Island in that environment. Look for guys like Mela and Erhunmwunse to be important development pieces as well, as they started shining late in expanded roles after all the injuries. This would be my dark horse to be a fun team that gets in as like a 10 seed. Not sure if that’s popular sentiment but there’s a surprising amount of talent here and English can coach. Watch out for the Friars is all I’m saying.

6.) Georgetown

Ed Cooley has had a bit of a tough time building back this Georgetown program, but last year was a major step in the right direction as they went from just 2 conference wins in year 1 all the way up to 8 a year ago. Now, they actually started out the year 12-2 before falling apart, but much of that was due to injuries to most of their top guys including NBA draft pick Thomas Sorber. The signs were good enough for me to believe Cooley has this train moving in the right direction, especially since he was able to hold on to some young talent that he brought in as his first true FR class. On top of that the transfers coming in I also like as a mix of veterans and promising young guys that should make immediate impacts. Mack/Lewis/Love make for a solid backcourt, with young pieces around them like DHS/Abraham/Williams looking for a bigger role than they previously had. The frontcourt could be the issue though, with just Iwuchukwu and the 3 returning guys from last year’s FR class (2 redshirts), I kind of question what that will look like. I do have them finishing better than last year, but I’m not sure if it will be good enough or not to get into the dance. They will need those transfer guards to really step up and also to continue their momentum defensively they showed last season (321st–>58th YOY). If they can get stops and this backcourt scores the way I think they can they should be fighting on the bubble all the way to the end. That’s the ceiling, but certainly with this many question marks it could be worse..

7.) Xavier

Well we have a 2nd Pitino entering the Big East as son Richard joins his dad in this conference that is fighting to remain in the power conference conversation without football. While I am excited about the potential here with Pitino and Xavier, I’m not convinced this rag tag group of mid-major transfers is going to get them humming in year 1. I mean, just look at the stark difference in roster makeup between UConn/St. John’s and this Xavier roster. I’m not trying to belittle the talent of these guys of course, but there are levels to this thing, and frankly I’m not buying stock in Xavier to be nationally relevant beyond the matchups between father and son that will inevitably capture people’s attention. I have no idea the resources that Xavier does or doesn’t have, but in this era that does matter and if they can’t pay to acquire the necessary talent Pitino might just use this as a launching pad to a job where he can. Now, that doesn’t preclude you from being competitive in the Big East and finding a way into the dance, but long term I wonder if he can build them to the point that UConn/St. John’s are so he can contend nationally. Also, let’s not totally conflate Richard’s history with his father’s, as Richard was the HC at Minnesota for 8 years and only made the dance twice. He got it going the last couple years at New Mexico but he has much to prove as a HC still. To say the least, I have reservations, both about this year’s roster and the future of this pairing of Xavier/Pitino. We’ll see how it plays out.

8.) Villanova

No program in the country has been more sad than the post-Jay Wright Villanova Wildcats over the past couple of years. Kyle Neptune was predictably unable to continue the success of Wright, taking a program that had made the tourney 9 straight years, including 2 national titles, through 3 straight seasons of missing the dance altogether. In comes Kevin Willard, who surprisingly left a Big Ten job to come back to the Big East to try and turn this ship around. He is going to have his work cut out for him in year 1 as he tries to completely rebuild this roster, with just 2 guys returning from a year ago. That means 8 transfers and 3 FR, with most of the proven production coming from the mid-major ranks. Devin Askew is probably the most proven commodity, a UK recruit way back in 2020, he should lead the show. Frankly though, beyond him it’s a bunch of question marks in terms of production that you can absolutely count on. That is why they are so low, and while it would be wild to think Villanova is going to remain outside of relevancy for a 4th year in a row, that is the state you can quickly find yourself in when you make the wrong hire. Neptune was that, and Willard is left to clean up the mess, we’ll see how much hay he can make in year 1.

9.) Butler

As an Indiana native seeing this Butler program struggling like this is a sad sight, but they really don’t have much to work with in this current era of college sports, so they’ll continue to hope that the wily vet Thad Matta can get some momentum going for this program that hasn’t been dancing since 2018. From the looks of it they were able to take one big swing in the transfer portal getting Jalen Jackson to run the show, and they’re going to need him to shoulder a big load offensively. They have some nice pieces to play around him with Butler and Ajayi coming in, and Bizjack returning as a catch and shoot option. In terms of playmaking though it’s going to all be on Jackson. This is probably Matta’s best FR class so that’s good news, but his track record of holding on to the FR he’s brought in is not great, as evidenced by the 5 guys transferring out this cycle. Much of that could be due to the money available at other schools, and that’s just the issue non-football schools are going to face. Short of a mega rich donor they’re left with only what the Big East can provide sans-football. Unfortunate, but Matta is going to have to coach his tail off to get this group back to the dance.

10.) DePaul

Alright we’re right where we want to be if you’re Chris Holtmann rebuilding DePaul. Sounds weird to say after just 4 Big East wins, but considering DePaul had won only 3 such games over the prior 2 seasons combined that is a major step forward. Now, after bringing in an entirely new roster last year you have 4 guys back, 3 of them being core rotation pieces. That’s progress, some momentum you might even say. You’ll of course have noticed I still have them way down at 10th in the league, but we’re starting from literal scratch here so this should not be offending anyone. I love that the backcourt is back with Gunn and Blocker, and Benson should slot right back in to contribute inside as well. What we’re looking at here are the additions of Banks and Maclin for scoring help as well as a wild card with Khaman Maker. He’s a 7’1″ C that was a pretty good recruit, if he can come in and anchor your defense as a rim protector and rebounder, all of a sudden we may be cooking with gas partner. I’m not trying to insinuate DePaul is going to be a contender, but who is to say we can’t double that win total and get up to 8 Big East wins? Do that and we slot up a couple of spots and have some real momentum. These are the programs I love to follow because you have a real pro who has coached at a high level trying to raise a dead program. That’s what this is all about, and while I doubt there’s a large contingency of DePaul hoops fans out there reading season previews…if you’re here just know, I’m rooting for you, and I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

11.) Seton Hall

It looked like Shaheen Holloway was going to be able to navigate the Big East waters well after year 2 where he had Seton Hall just on the outside of a tourney berth with positive momentum from year 1. That all came crashing down last year in what was nothing but a disaster of a season that culminated in just 2 Big East wins and finishing below DePaul. It’s one of those seasons you have to flush, and lucky for Holloway in this era you can just cycle everyone out and bring in an entire new team with relative ease. The unfortunate part is most of these guys are either productive mid-major talents or unheralded guys transferring down from power 4 conference teams where they didn’t play much and/or were wildly inefficient. That could be a good thing if they’re fighting to break through, but it could also be they didn’t earn that PT for a reason other than just simply a better guy was in front of them. None of those guys were these promising recruits that just need a role to shine in my opinion, so I genuinely think we’re looking at the worst team in the Big East here yet again with Seton Hall, in what could be Holloway’s final season here if that’s the case. Maybe he gets them to be an elite defensive team, as that’s his calling card, but that’s asking a lot for a team of complete strangers to come together and be connected on D. I don’t see it happening to say the least, so for Seton Hall I expect another tumultuous season that likely ends in a coaching search come spring.