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I think it will start to get interesting now as we vote for 6th place. So far:

10 - DePaul
9 - Butler
8 - Creighton
7 - Marquette

Omaha- you accidentally left Marquette in the poll.

I was (as most probably are) between SJU, SHU, an Prov for the 6 spot. Ended up going SJU mostly because of Lavin.

10 - DePaul
9 - Butler
8 - Marquette
7 - St. John's
6 - Seton Hall - Seton Hall checks in at 6th for me. They lose Fuquan Edwards, Patrick Auda, Gene Teague, and Brian Oliver from last years team. Returning is Sterling Gibbs, whom I am very high on as well as top recruit Isaiah Whitehead, plus Angel Delgado and Desi Rodriguez. Obviously their backcourt is loaded this year, but their frontcourt, not so much. Like every school behind them, I have questions about their big men. Can they win the battle on the boards? Brandon Mobley is their only returning big man. Angel Delgado will have to contribute right away for the Pirates to have success in the post. I think it will be very close between St. John's and Seton Hall for 6th and 7th, but I have taken The Hall to finish above the Johnnies.

Hall2012 wrote:Omaha- you accidentally left Marquette in the poll.

I was (as most probably are) between SJU, SHU, an Prov for the 6 spot. Ended up going SJU mostly because of Lavin.

Omaha, could you restart the poll without Marquette? I voted them 6th because I didn't look at the other posts including the one that said that Marquette was already voted 7th. Thanks.

3-6 is the hardest for me to nail down. I think Xavier, St. John's, Providence, and Seton Hall could be shuffled in any order and it would be reasonable.

St. John's will be better than last season. They will finish top three. Seton Hall is set up nicely for the future, but young teams struggle. If they can get the youngsters to give them two years, they will be really good next season.

So I was looking at USA Today's college basketball countdown preview of Seton Hall (#48 and dancing- I'll take it!!), and noticed that they majorly disagreed with us on Butler. They gave a projected Big East top 5 in the preview which went as follows: 1-Villanova, 2-Xavier, 3-Georgetown, 4-Seton Hall, 5-Butler.

Realistically, #5 and #9 could only be separated by a game or 2, but do they know something about the Bulldogs that we don't? (There was no full preview of Butler because they didn't have them in the field of 68)

Lots of people sleeping on the Johnnies but I love it. Low expectations are when this team performs best and pulls the big upsets. We still have the talent to beat anyone in the country on any given day. Last year we hung tough with top 10 teams. Imagine how different the season would have been if we held on to beat #8 Nova and #2 Cuse? We would have finished in the top 15. Talent is there, but the coaching is what holds us back IMO. I can understand why people are low on us because even off a 20 win season we haven't made a tourney, but IMO Keith Thomas will make a big difference rebounding with a pretty crisp offensive game and won't try to do too much like Sampson or Sanchez…instead he will dish to our guards. We also have the twin tower 7 foot De La Rosa brothers and a pure shooter from Italy. We shall see.

By the way, no way SHU finishes top 5. They are all babies. In 2012 SJ had a roster of top 50 freshmen and sucked. So how is SHU expected to accelerate their growth process?

My question for guys taking the hall over SJU. Looking at just the rosters I think it is pretty clear that St. John's has the better and more experienced team. The stength of seton hall this year will be their back court, but how many people would take Gibbs and Whitehead over Harrison and Jordan? Plus two solid seniors in Branch and Greene to back them up. The front court is the perceived weakness for both teams, but we return our starting center. So what is it? Lavin? Thats the only viable reason I can see, and I cant fault people for worrying about him. Just curious.

Amase2 wrote:My question for guys taking the hall over SJU. Looking at just the rosters I think it is pretty clear that St. John's has the better and more experienced team. The stength of seton hall this year will be their back court, but how many people would take Gibbs and Whitehead over Harrison and Jordan? Plus two solid seniors in Branch and Greene to back them up. The front court is the perceived weakness for both teams, but we return our starting center. So what is it? Lavin? Thats the only viable reason I can see, and I cant fault people for worrying about him. Just curious.

I am really high on Sterling Gibbs, I think he will continue to make big strides and by the end of the season he will be in contention for First Team All-Conference. I think Whitehead has incredible potential, too. By the time Big East play begins, he'll have around 10 games under his belt, which is enough time to have adjusted to the college game. Also, I must admit that I'm not as high on Jordan as a lot of people are. Will he even start? I do like Harrison quite a bit, though. Thus I have Gibbs and Whitehead, by just a bit.
To the frontcourt, though Obekpa returns, I am not so sure about the newcomers. I strongly doubt that they will be as good as Sampson. Seton Hall loses quite a bit up front too, but I think it's a wash with so many question marks on both sides right now. And Lavin. Well, what can I say that hasn't been said already? Not much. St. John's would probably be much better without him. I'd take Willard over him any day, in all honesty. Hence, why I have Seton Hall over St. John's, but not by much.