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Can Nova repeat? Who's the dark horse?

Next year's favorite? Why Xavier, of course.

At this point without question Nova. Xavier, Providence, and Creighton lose their best players. Regardless we have good recruiting classes coming in and it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest to see a team like X and Gtwon win it.

I think everyone either stays about the same or moves up, with the exception of Creighton what with Doug leaving and Gibbs moving to the retirement home for his twilight years.

DePaul.

I think it has to be Nova. Georgetown should be much improved next year. When they were on they could beat anybody. Hopefully they will be more consistent next year. We have some big questions at Marquette, so I don't see us really challenging next season (unless Wojo turns out to be a coaching genius). We'll see on everybody else. Lots of questions.

I think it's Nova as well. Johnnies should move up.

If Pinkston is back and everybody stays healthy, Villanova will be very good and arguably better next year than they were this year.

St. John's fans, there is a rumor Obepka might be leaving now. Any truth to this?

marquette wrote:I think it has to be Nova. Georgetown should be much improved next year. When they were on they could beat anybody. Hopefully they will be more consistent next year. We have some big questions at Marquette, so I don't see us really challenging next season (unless Wojo turns out to be a coaching genius). We'll see on everybody else. Lots of questions.

I don't have GTown's roster for next year in front of me, but just off the top of my head they lose Starks, Lubick, Ayegba and Bowen. Obviously Starks is a huge loss there. I know they bring in a really good class, but always tough to count on a ton of production there. What is the status of Josh Smith?

Xavier with Semaj I think you could make an argument for being up there with Nova, obviously not the case now though, although I do expect them to be Top 3 again, but then again I'm a little biased. I think there is a lot of roster shakeout left to be done for next year yet so it will be really interesting to see how that all turns out. The more I think about it (and this is just off the top of my head, not looking at a single roster), the more I think most teams will take at least a step back or remain current with this year, hopefully I am wrong about that.

There are rumors all over the SJU boards about a few different things. There is talk about Obekpa not coming back which goes back to the Providence game in the BET when Obekpa hardly played. The word was that he refused to play in the second half. Since then, the rumors have been swirling that he is leaving. There is nothing but speculation on that right now. The other rumor involves Lavs and his extension. The talk about an extension has died down over the last few weeks and some think its because they failed to show up for the NIT and have no recruits locked up yet for 2014. Johnnie nation is a bit nervous and divided quite frankly as to what is going on. Even if we lose Obekpa, we should be better next season than this one. A lot will depend on who is here and who isn't.