So who's the Big East favorite in 2014-15?

[XUFan09]

Fight for your players. Who did I leave out?

Xavier's Justin Martin might have made all-conference if there was another team (three teams and an honorable mention roll instead of two teams and an honorable mention roll), and that was when he didn't play well for the first third of the season. I would definitely put him ahead of Bluiett in the Honorable Mention consideration, and he might end up being better than Stainbrook. More likely, he and Stainbrook will be about equal this next year, and I could definitely see both of them on 2nd team.

Jalen Reynolds will be good, but he might be one year away from being all-conference.

[MUBoxer]

I'm sure this list will change several times as the pieces fall. I mean heck it's already invalid with Obekpa leaving.

but I can't see you finishing higher than 6th. Last year's team's strength was it's front court and now you pretty much have stever taylor jr and no one else. But who know's I'm biased and not particularly fond of marquette. I also do not think highly of Wojo so that's another strike against Marquette.

Luke Fischer will be our starting center during conference play. Pierce will be a back up getting significant minutes if he decides to come. That's questionable, but I won't count him out until he asks for his release. STJ and Burton will probably split minutes at PF. I expect Burton to be much improved. We may still finish 6th or below, but we aren't completely deficient up front. We should also be slightly improved in our guard play. I fully expect Duane Wilson to be an upgrade over Derrick Wilson. Mayo can be great when he is on. Ahmed Hill, if he comes, should give us some 3 point range. We may be worse next season, but we may surprise and be a little better.

Burton at PF? 6'4 Deonte Burton?

And yeah I know you get Luke Fischer by semester break, but by then it'll likely be too late. I mean look at Marquette this year. They were toast by the time conference play started. And that's assuming you actually get great production from Fischer. He's a top 100 talent, but he's not a top 25 or top 50 can't miss guy. I know ESPN was very high on him, but no one else had him top 50.

I don't know if you happen to remember Lazar Hayward but he absolutely dominated an amazing GTown frontcourt with Vaughn, monroe, and Thompson he was just about the same height as Burton with the same build. Burton is even more explosive off the dribble though. Not saying we will be killing it but as far as weak points on this team Burton being an undersized PF is not one of them.

[hoyahooligan]

I don't know if you happen to remember Lazar Hayward but he absolutely dominated an amazing GTown frontcourt with Vaughn, monroe, and Thompson he was just about the same height as Burton with the same build. Burton is even more explosive off the dribble though. Not saying we will be killing it but as far as weak points on this team Burton being an undersized PF is not one of them.

6'6" hayward vs. 6'4" burton. Those 2 inches mean a lot. 6'6 is tall enough to be a PF,6'4 isn't.

Also in 2 games vs. that Hoyas line up a Senior Hayward averaged 13.5 pts 7 rbds in a 1-1 record. Sophmore Monroe averaged 17pts 11.5 rbds, Jr Julian Vaughn averaged 10pts 4.5rbds, Freshman Hollis Thompson averaged 3.5pts and 2 rebounds (he also only played SF that year so unlikely matched up against Hayward).

Oh and Hayward shot 25% and 31% from the field in the two games respectively. But nice try. He absolutely dominated nothing in they year you are referring to.

I assume you must be thinking of the Previous year before Hollis Thompson arrived when a top 10 Marquette team beat an NIT Georgetown team twice When Monroe was a freshman and Vaughn was a sophomore and Hayward was a Jr. In which case it was Julian Vaughn, Greg Monroe, and Dajuan Summers.
Hayward averaged 20pts and 8 rebounds on 50% shooting. Summers average 17pts 5.5 rbds, Monroe 13pts 6rbds, and Vaughn played a total of 9 minutes. That Hoyas team was not an amazing team. Hayward played well against a young team who's season was in disarray. When two more evenly matched teams met the following year he dominated nothing.

[aughnanure]

I don't know if you happen to remember Lazar Hayward but he absolutely dominated an amazing GTown frontcourt with Vaughn, monroe, and Thompson he was just about the same height as Burton with the same build. Burton is even more explosive off the dribble though. Not saying we will be killing it but as far as weak points on this team Burton being an undersized PF is not one of them.

6'6" hayward vs. 6'4" burton. Those 2 inches mean a lot. 6'6 is tall enough to be a PF,6'4 isn't.

Also in 2 games vs. that Hoyas line up a Senior Hayward averaged 13.5 pts 7 rbds in a 1-1 record. Sophmore Monroe averaged 17pts 11.5 rbds, Jr Julian Vaughn averaged 10pts 4.5rbds, Freshman Hollis Thompson averaged 3.5pts and 2 rebounds (he also only played SF that year so unlikely matched up against Hayward).

Oh and Hayward shot 25% and 31% from the field in the two games respectively. But nice try. He absolutely dominated nothing in they year you are referring to.

I assume you must be thinking of the Previous year before Hollis Thompson arrived when a top 10 Marquette team beat an NIT Georgetown team twice When Monroe was a freshman and Vaughn was a sophomore and Hayward was a Jr. In which case it was Julian Vaughn, Greg Monroe, and Dajuan Summers.
Hayward averaged 20pts and 8 rebounds on 50% shooting. Summers average 17pts 5.5 rbds, Monroe 13pts 6rbds, and Vaughn played a total of 9 minutes. That Hoyas team was not an amazing team. Hayward played well against a young team who's season was in disarray. When two more evenly matched teams met the following year he dominated nothing.

Lazar wasn't even 6'5. Stop this.

We also went to war with a 6'5 Wesley Matthews, 6'6 Jimmy Butler, 6'4 Jae Crowder manning the paint. You're wrong.

[MUBoxer]

I don't know if you happen to remember Lazar Hayward but he absolutely dominated an amazing GTown frontcourt with Vaughn, monroe, and Thompson he was just about the same height as Burton with the same build. Burton is even more explosive off the dribble though. Not saying we will be killing it but as far as weak points on this team Burton being an undersized PF is not one of them.

6'6" hayward vs. 6'4" burton. Those 2 inches mean a lot. 6'6 is tall enough to be a PF,6'4 isn't.

Also in 2 games vs. that Hoyas line up a Senior Hayward averaged 13.5 pts 7 rbds in a 1-1 record. Sophmore Monroe averaged 17pts 11.5 rbds, Jr Julian Vaughn averaged 10pts 4.5rbds, Freshman Hollis Thompson averaged 3.5pts and 2 rebounds (he also only played SF that year so unlikely matched up against Hayward).

Oh and Hayward shot 25% and 31% from the field in the two games respectively. But nice try. He absolutely dominated nothing in they year you are referring to.

I assume you must be thinking of the Previous year before Hollis Thompson arrived when a top 10 Marquette team beat an NIT Georgetown team twice When Monroe was a freshman and Vaughn was a sophomore and Hayward was a Jr. In which case it was Julian Vaughn, Greg Monroe, and Dajuan Summers.
Hayward averaged 20pts and 8 rebounds on 50% shooting. Summers average 17pts 5.5 rbds, Monroe 13pts 6rbds, and Vaughn played a total of 9 minutes. That Hoyas team was not an amazing team. Hayward played well against a young team who's season was in disarray. When two more evenly matched teams met the following year he dominated nothing.

You're right I was in fact thinking of his JR year as that year he was playing PF while his senior year he was essentially playing center considering your insane frontcourt let a 6'5" center go 13.5 and 7 it still shows undersized isn't a problem for that type of player.

And I'm sorry but regarding that GTown team you guys were up to no11 in the country that year. It was definitely not the slouch of a team you're making it out to be considering you guys beat #17 Memphis, #10 Nova, #8 Cuse and #2 UConn that year.

Also while I think Hayward is the best comparison to Burton between the undersized Crowder, Butler, Matthews group of post players the other guys add on to what I'm saying about his height not being a problem.

[hoyahooligan]

I don't know if you happen to remember Lazar Hayward but he absolutely dominated an amazing GTown frontcourt with Vaughn, monroe, and Thompson he was just about the same height as Burton with the same build. Burton is even more explosive off the dribble though. Not saying we will be killing it but as far as weak points on this team Burton being an undersized PF is not one of them.

6'6" hayward vs. 6'4" burton. Those 2 inches mean a lot. 6'6 is tall enough to be a PF,6'4 isn't.

Also in 2 games vs. that Hoyas line up a Senior Hayward averaged 13.5 pts 7 rbds in a 1-1 record. Sophmore Monroe averaged 17pts 11.5 rbds, Jr Julian Vaughn averaged 10pts 4.5rbds, Freshman Hollis Thompson averaged 3.5pts and 2 rebounds (he also only played SF that year so unlikely matched up against Hayward).

Oh and Hayward shot 25% and 31% from the field in the two games respectively. But nice try. He absolutely dominated nothing in they year you are referring to.

I assume you must be thinking of the Previous year before Hollis Thompson arrived when a top 10 Marquette team beat an NIT Georgetown team twice When Monroe was a freshman and Vaughn was a sophomore and Hayward was a Jr. In which case it was Julian Vaughn, Greg Monroe, and Dajuan Summers.
Hayward averaged 20pts and 8 rebounds on 50% shooting. Summers average 17pts 5.5 rbds, Monroe 13pts 6rbds, and Vaughn played a total of 9 minutes. That Hoyas team was not an amazing team. Hayward played well against a young team who's season was in disarray. When two more evenly matched teams met the following year he dominated nothing.

Lazar wasn't even 6'5. Stop this.

We also went to war with a 6'5 Wesley Matthews, 6'6 Jimmy Butler, 6'4 Jae Crowder manning the paint. You're wrong.

I'm just going off of listed heights. Lazar was listed at 6'6. Burton is listed at 6'4. So You're saying that Lazar's height wasn't accurate but Burton's is. Also with the new rule changes it's a lot harder for smaller guys to guard bigger guys since you can no longer arm bar in the post. The issue isn't offensively. It's defensively and I think the new rules make it especially hard for under sized PF's to compete on that end of the court. All your undersized "big men" you're touting did most of their damage from the perimeter not from the post on offense. Lol at Crowder being 6'4 try 6'6 Butler was 6'7 , You got Matthews height correct so 1/4.

[MUBoxer]

Lazar was listed at 6ft5 when he came to MU I just looked up what he's listed at now and it's 6'6" so who knows who is right in that context. You raise a good point regarding the rule changes that definitely gave Lazar a ton of help that he wouldn't get now days. I know I can vouch for Butler being a bit taller than Hayward as I remember vividly the beginning of a night where I was at a party with them. I know crowder never looked as tall as Butler so 6'6" is believable.

[stever20]

Hooper/Lavinwood, so Nova losing to the team in its region of the bracket that is now sitting in the FF makes them a fraud huh? I will bet you right now that Nova starts the year ranked in the Top 10. So your prediction will be wrong in the first week of the poll next year. And you should hope the same so your Johnnies at least get 2 opportunities to beat a marquee team next year.

I wouldn't be shocked to see Nova not in the top 10. This year outside Atlantis, Nova beat 2 top 50 teams- St Joe's and Providence twice. That's it. Even if you include Atlantis, Iowa falls off. So best wins outside Atlantis were a 10 seed and a 11 seed 2x. Given how poorly Big East did in the tourney, wouldn't be a shock at all to see Nova in that 11-15 range. We'll see a smidge next week after the tourney when folks release their way too early top 25's. I suspect Nova will be the only team in the preseason top 25, just like this year.

Just saw a first way too early top 25...
Villanova 13th. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketb ... all-season

Georgetown in the group of other 15 teams.

Unfortunately wouldn't be shocked if that's where we are come November 1 next year.

just saw CBS- they have Nova 11th in their top 25 and 1.

do like Nova starting higher than what Marquette did this year. Just afraid that no one else is going to be really close at all to start the season....

[hoyahooligan]

Lazar was listed at 6ft5 when he came to MU I just looked up what he's listed at now and it's 6'6" so who knows who is right in that context. You raise a good point regarding the rule changes that definitely gave Lazar a ton of help that he wouldn't get now days. I know I can vouch for Butler being a bit taller than Hayward as I remember vividly the beginning of a night where I was at a party with them. I know crowder never looked as tall as Butler so 6'6" is believable.

Stop being reasonable I'm trying to hate you.

[Burrito]

I expect The Big East will only have 1 ranked team come November. Things may change as the season progresses. I do see there are some non football playing schools in that early Top 25: VCU, Gonzaga and Wichita State. Those are the best basketball only programs out there because they have very good coaches. Dayton has potential under Archie Miller but one good season does not make a coach.