Big East Team Capsules

Enjoy it while you still can.

With the Big East Conference in serious flux (we're looking at you Syracuse Pitt and West Virginia), this could be the last year this league is the flagship of college basketball. There hasn't been much of an argument regarding the best conference in the country since the Big East added basketball schools like Louisville, Marquette and Cincinnati to go along with Big East founders Syracuse, UConn, Georgetown and Villanova.

So, with the college basketball season getting underway this evening, let's briefly preview each Big East team. We'll go in reverse order of predicted finish. You know, just to create some suspense.

16. DePaul: The Blue Demons are 2-52 in the Big East over the last three years, so it's no surprise why they find themselves anticipated at the bottom of the list again. But there could be hope for them to actually produce more than one conference win (hey, baby steps, people).

DePaul returns its top two scorers from last season in sophomore forward Cleveland Melvin (14.3 ppg) – the league's rookie of the year last season – and sophomore guard Brandon Young (12.6).

In Oliver Purnell's second season in Chicago, he has to show some signs of a turnaround or questions of job security could arise.

15. Providence: We might be lower on this team than other prognosticators. With the Keno Davis era over, Ed Cooley has some work to do. He has some holdovers who can contribute in junior guard Vincent Council and sophomore guard Gerard Coleman.

The Friars have exactly three upper classmen, so there could be some growing pains with a new coach and a young backcourt in an unforgiving league.

14. South Florida: The Bulls, like DePaul, are a program that has been seemingly overmatched since joining the Big East. Head coach Stan Heath is on the hot seat entering his fifth season at the helm and only one above-.500 season.

Heath will depend on senior big man Gus Gilchrist, who averaged 13.4 points and 6 rebounds last season. The offense will run through this talent, who needs to finally live up to his potential.

Supporting Gilchrist will be junior guard and high-flyer Jawanza Poland, who was second on the team in scoring last year. The Bulls also return sharp-shooter Shaun Noriega.

The key for the Bulls will be to find consistent scoring. USF averaged just 61.9 points per game and shot only 41 percent from the floor. The Bulls can guard, but can't suffer through those scoring droughts that have plagued them in recent years.

13. Seton Hall: The Bobby Gonzalez era is mercifully over for Pirates fans, and in Kevin Willard's first season SHU notched some signature wins at Syracuse and at home against Marquette. But the Pirates need to take that next step will have to do it without scoring extraordinaire Jeremy Hazell.

SHU loses its top two scorers from last season, but return streaky guard Jordan Theodore and mercurial big man Herb Pope, who finished near the top in the Big East in rebounding last year at 7.9 per game.

Seton Hall welcomes seven freshman into the fold, so there will be some growing pains, but don't be surprised if Willard turns this Pirate ship around in a couple of years.

12. Rutgers: In Mike Rice's second season, the Scarlet Knights have some nice pieces, but the program is still recovering from the Fred Hill era/disaster.

Sophomore forward Gilvydas Biruta looks to build on an eye-opening freshman campaign, finishing second on the team in scoring and rebounding. Biruta will be complemented inside by Dane Miller, a junior swingman who led the team in rebounds and was third in scoring.

It's worth noting the rest of these teams all made the NCAA Tournament last year.

11. West Virginia: The Mountaineers return three key starters in physical point guard Truck Bryant, rebounding machine and power forward Kevin Jones and skilled big man and forward Deniz Kilicii, but beyond that this team is extremely young with seven freshman on the roster.

Coach Bob Huggins will get the youngsters playing the tough trademark WVU defense in time, but before that happens this team will take its lumps in the Big East.

10. St. John's: Coach Steve Lavin proved he can still recruit by hauling in a top 5 recruiting class to replace last year's senior-laden team, which made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in quite a while for the Red Storm.

The Johnnies have no seniors and three juniors on the rosters to go along with a litter of freshmen. The raw talent is there and may help St. John's pull a few upsets in the Garden this year, but inconsistency will be the bugaboo of this young team.

9. Notre Dame: It looked like coach Mike Brey finally had a team that could go deep into the NCAA Tournament last year with a bunch of seniors and a deadly 3-point shooting team. Then the Irish ran into the nation's best defense in Florida State and the offense ground to a halt.

After gaining a No. 2 seed in the dance, Notre Dame failed to make the Sweet 16 and now Brey and company are back in rebuilding mode.

Sophomore guard Eric Atkins, who often played backup to guard Ben Hansbrough, will need to take a leadership role in the offense and create scoring chances for ND.

The Irish still have seniors Scott Martin and Tim Abromaitis, but both of them struggle to create offense on their own. The Irish won't outscored teams this year, so they'll have to again rely on the burn offense and strong team defense to scrap out wins.

8. Georgetown: In recent years, the Hoyas have been rated highly in the preseason and looked good in the non-conference, then would hit the skids around late February-early March and finish the season in disappointing fashion.

This year the Hoyas are not getting the national respect, but John Thompson III still has his Princeton-style offense intact and still has plenty of size (eight guys 6-8 or taller) to battle through the tough conference play.

The question mark will be guard play after G'Town has enjoyed efficient point guard play for so long. Look for junior forward Hollis Thompson to take the next step and seniors Jason Clark and Henry Sims to be the steadying leaders on the team.

7. Villanova: It seems odd to pick these Big East stalwarts this low, but I wonder just how much Jay Wright's team can bounce back from its epic collapse at the end of last season. The Wildcats started the season 16-1 and were a mainstay in the top 10 during the season. After that, Nova finished 5-11 including an embarrassing loss to South Florida in the Big East Tournament.

No doubt the Wildcats have backcourt talent in junior guards Maalik Wayns and Dominic Cheek, along with sophomore guard James Bell. But the Cats lack experience with five freshman and two sophomores with limited playing time on the team.

Mouphtaou Yarou will need to take the next step and be a consistent inside scorer for this team to play above its expectations.

6. Marquette: The Golden Eagles made a surprising run to the Sweet 16 last year after an inconsistent run through the Big East. MU loses two starters in Jimmy Butler and Dwight Buycks, but the emergence of junior point guard Junior Cadougan and addition of transfer Jamil Wilson should help mitigate the loss of those two players.

Jae Crowder and Darius Johnson-Odom are the unquestioned leaders of this squad and will create much of the offense for Marquette. If MU is going to be more consistent in Big East play, it will need steadier contributions from sophomore guard Vander Blue and junior big man Chris Otule.

5. Cincinnati: The Bearcats finally crack into the NCAA Tournament last year, only to run into conference counterpart Syracuse in the first round.

Cincy might be even better this year with addition by subtraction of Lance Stephenson. As always, Mick Cronin has athletes at his disposal and big man Yancey Gates will create problem for any opponent.

Junior guard Cashmere Wright can fill it up and sophomore guard Sean Kilpatrick looks to build off of an over-achieving freshman campaign.

For the first time in a long time there are high expectations for the Bearcats and you can count on Cincy at least giving maximum effort on defense under Cronin.

4. Louisville: The injury bug has hit the Cardinals early on with significant injuries freshman forward Wayne Blackshear and junior guard Mike Marra.

But Rick Pitino has a deep team as usual, which will play off of its pressure defense. Leading scorer and ball-handler Peyton Siva returns for his junior year and senior guard Kyle Kuric and junior forward Rakeem Buckles look to finally escape the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament this year.

The Cardinals are tough at home and will contend for the Big East title.

3. Pittsburgh: One thing you can count on with a Jamie Dixon team is toughness, and in the Big East, that goes a long way. Although the Panthers lose the services of Gilbert Brown, they return senior Ashton Gibbs, senior forward Nasir Robinson and junior guard Trevon Woodall.

Pitt can defend with the best of them and that mindset is what helped it win the Big East regular season title last year. On top of that, it's nearly impossible to defeat Pitt at home, so if the Panthers can manage a winning road record, they'll be right there for another Big East title at season's end.

2. UConn: The Huskies finished at .500 in conference play last year, but then ripped off 11 straight wins to capture the Big East and NCAA Tournament titles.

Obviously, UConn will miss its leader and game-finisher Kemba Walker, but return second-leading scorer Jeremy Lamb and welcome a talented freshman class, headlined by big man Andre Drummond.

The issue for the Huskies will be finishing close games as last year Walker was so good at it. Who will step up late in games this year for the Huskies?

However, UConn's rebounding and shot blocking will be there again and size goes a long way to a Big East title.

1. Syracuse: The Oranges roster is a who's who of prep talent, and Jim Boeheim gets the most out of his team's length with the employment of an aggressive 2-3 zone year after year.

If the upperclassmen, like junior guard Brandon Triche, senior guard Scoop Jardine and senior forward Kris Joseph, can live up to their billings, the Orange should have steady play throughout the season.

Add to that big man Fab Melo with one year under his belt, freshman forward Rakeem Christmas and long big man Baye Moussa Keita, and Syracuse goes deeper than any other Big East team.

This is the Oranges' year to win in their final year in the Big East.

Quick Predictions:
Big East Player of the Year: Kris Joseph
Coach of the Year: Mick Cronin
Newcomer of the Year: Andre Drummond
Big East Tournament winner: Louisville
NCAA Tournament teams: 8