The Holy Land of Hoops

My opinion

1) Nova. - the favorite
2) Creighton - looking very tough, love this team
3) Georgetown - I'm not totally sold, but they're talented
4) Xavier - one of now 4 teams with top 50 SOS and 11 wins, 24 rpi
5) Butler - maybe ahead of X but not as many decent wins
6) St. John's talent talent talent, if they learn to play ball
7) Providence - an enigma. Have talent, hurt, can be good or bad
8) Marquette - falling fast, anemic offense
9) Seton hall - doesn't pass PC just by wining, still carrying brutal loses
10) DePaul - playing better but still in basement

Opinions welcome

1. Nova
2. Creighton

The next tier (bubble teams):
3. Xavier
4. Butler
5. Georgetown
6. St johns.

The next tier (possible nit teams)
7. Marquette
8. Providence

The basement:
9. Seton hall
10. Depaul

We really want teams 3-4 to beat up on teams 7-10 as much as possible. Everytime a team from the 7-10 range beats a team above it, it hurts the league's chances of sending a 4th or 5th team to the dance. We don't mind if nova or creighton lose, so long as it is to teams in the 3-6 range.

We could still get 5 bids, but things really have to break right and the bottom four teams have to absorb a ton of losses. If the league ends up having parity, then we may get stuck with only 3 teams dancing.

My tiers
top tier
1. Nova
2. Creighton

2nd tier
3. Georgetown
4. Xavier
5. Butler

3rd tier
6. St John's
7. Marquette

bottom tier
8. Seton Hall
9. Providence(head to head loss to Seton Hall)
10. DePaul

Head to head matters to me with Seton Hall and Providence- and the fact that it looks like SH may get going a bit while PC may not going to say fall apart but it's going to be really hard.

1. Nova
2. Creighton
3. Georgetown
4. Xavier
5. Butler
6. St. John's
7. Marquette
8. Providence
9. Seton Hall
10. DePaul

Really don't see the gap between 2 and 3 others do.

My tiers

top tier
1. VIllanova - class of league; mentally tough squad
2. Creighton - Doug McDermott is a stud

2nd tier (3-5 are very close)
3. Xavier - taking care of business, for now..hopefully they don't have another Atlantis stretch
4. Butler - have substantially exceeded my expectations, but no wins that really jump out at me. gritty squad that will be tough to beat at hinkle
5. Georgetown - loss to Northeastern is awful
6. St. John's - talent is there, can they put it all together at some point?

3rd tier
7. Marquette - not good
8. Providence - unlucky with injuries/suspensions. but trending down
9. Seton Hall - like georgetown, some truly dreadful losses
10. DePaul - still at the bottom, but getting better

As a Jays fan I have such mixed feelings! The teams listed in the bottom "tier" by almost everybody here would be in the top 1/2 of the Valley, IMO. So it's GREAT to have such fantastic competition night in and night out. But it's also damn scary. The Jays go to SH this weekend and that game has had me more worried than the Marquette game did -- precisely because, whatever you want to say about the bad losses, etc., SH is capable of beating every single team in this conference on a given night and it wouldn't take an absolute "fluke" performance. When the Jays were in the Valley, the bottom few teams like Evansville (most years) or SIU (the last few years) were "capable" of doing it (and did do it on occasion), but it always seemed like a shocking fluke when it happened. Here it wouldn't be all that surprising.

I think I'd break it down this way, based on what I've seen all year:

Nova

Creighton
X
Butler
Georgetown
St. John's

Marquette
Providence
Seton Hall
DePaul

I think Nova looks head and shoulders above everyone else. They have the results on the court to prove it. I would be shocked if they don't end up winning the conference regular season.

The second group is, to me, wide open.

Creighton has the offensive tools and has the ability to play great defense with adequate game planning and time to prepare -- but this team has routinely lost some games it should win in the middle of conference play the last couple years, and that was against much lesser competition than this year. One thing being in the BIG EAST has shown Creighton so far this year, too, is that our teams in all other sports have suffered some from adjusting to the travel, etc., as the season wears on -- I'm going to have to see that not happen to the basketball team before I believe it won't happen.

X and Butler both look scary to me. They play solid fundamental ball across the board, have great athletes, etc. Butler could very easily be undefeated right now if the ball bounced the other way once or twice in each of the losses. I was really impressed with how X really handled SJU.

G'Town and SJU are totally used the conference grind, etc. Both have the athletes to rise up and win the conference or at least finish in the top 2 or 3. Both also have shown an ability to lose games it seems like they should win, though. I keep thinking SJU is going to put it all together and go on a run. I think on a given night that team could run about anybody in the country out of the gym -- or miss a couple of shots and fold against about anybody in the country.

I think Marquette still has the tools to be able to compete on a level like the preseason predictions. There are some big bodies in there, and some really athletic guys who are almost unstoppable from about 10-12 feet in. They have shown an ability to defend over the course of the year, which should keep them in most games. Buzz is a great coach -- but watching the game at Creighton left me really scratching my head. I couldn't figure out what they were trying to do. Their guards would fly down the court and seem like they could get to the rim at will -- but about 4 feet away they'd stop, turn, and kick it out to somebody who couldn't/wouldn't even consider shooting it. Then they'd pass it around a while and end up taking a contested jumper. Every once in a while they'd let one of their longer guards drive in and pull up around the free throw line or so and consistently hit that shot -- but then they wouldn't do it for a long time. It seemed like they had opportunities to do a lot of things offensively that would have worked, but they just refused to do them. On defense, it was almost like they hadn't heard that anybody other than McDermott could shoot the ball -- how the scouting report would not indicate that you can't leave Ethan Wragge wide open four or five consecutive times down the court is beyond me. Such an enigma of a team.

Then the bottom three, for varying reasons. It honestly wouldn't surprise me to see any of those three end up winning just enough to end up in the top half of the conference, frankly.

So exciting -- so scary.

1. Villanova
2. Creighton
3. Xavier
5. Georgetown
4. Butler
6. Marquette
7. St. John’s
8. Seton Hall
9. Providence
10. DePaul

The one that’s hardest to peg is Butler. Their 3 losses are by a combined 7 points and two of those were in overtime, but as has been said they really don’t have much in the way of good wins. The win over Purdue is starting to look better, but wins over Vandy and Princeton at home don’t move the needle much. That game at Xavier this weekend is a big one, not only for eventual Big East standings, but also because a team that could contend for a NCAA bid really doesn’t want to start off 0-2 in league.

This is going to be a fun ride....no game will be a gimme. 14-4 may well win this league. Teams will lose 2 in a row and go into panic mode (see Providence right now) or win 3 in a row and think they are in the driver's seat. I think Villanova, Creighton, Georgetown, Butler, Xavier, and Marquette are all capable of winning the league (in descending order of probability). That's about all I feel I can say with any degree of confidence. Even Marquette, while looking really bad offensively on Tuesday, could very well figure it out, hold court at home, steal the requisite 5 games on the road and win this thing. Each set of five games we are going to see something surprising, much like Seton Hall's win at Providence. Who will it be this weekend? Butler beating X? SH over CU?

Amazing how different my personal rankings of the teams would be today versus how they'd have looked in October. I'm just shocked at how bad Marquette has been, and frankly, am surprised at how well Xavier and Butler have played (specifically with Butler losing Rosie Jones and not really having a top-shelf point guard). That said, here is how I would rank the teams today:

Villanova
Creighton
Xavier
Georgetown
Butler
St. John's
Marquette
Providence
Seton Hall
DePaul

That said, I think when the 18 game schedule comes to a close Villanova will win the league, Georgetown and Creighton will be close for 2nd (Creighton at home is the closest thing to a lock in the league, in my opinion), and Xavier will be 4th. I expect Butler, Johnnies, and Marquette to be in some order for 5-7.

Like someone else mentioned, Butler at Xavier on Saturday will be a really good game and should provide us some more clarity on both teams. I expect Xavier to win by 10 or so because of more offensive weapons and depth, but I think Butler will be fine as they are starting with a really brutal pair of games right out of the gate.

The biggest changes from my preseason rankings aee georgetown, butler and x.

I knew marquette would struggle, they lost way too much from the prior year not to have a little regression. I know nova would be strong, as they finished last year very well and returned almost everyone.

I thought georgetown would be up with creighton and nova. And really, outside of thnortheastern game, they still could be.

I thought butler and xavier would struggle and finish bottom half. They both look like top 5 teams with tourney potential.

I thought pc would not lose to seton hall at home. I thought st john's (or at least hoped) would be better. I had no expectations for depaul or seton hall.