The Holy Land of Hoops

Outlook: Our nation's capital is home to four Division I schools: Georgetown, George Washington, American and Howard. The Hoyas are the simple pick here, though it's fair to note that GW's been an undeniable improvement under Mike Lonergan in the past four seasons.

Outlook: Going to be painfully blunt here: New Jersey and its college basketball situation is in much worse shape than it has any business being, especially given the talent the state produces. Seton Hall was our pick, and we made it with our eyes closed. Princeton isn't on the precipice of an Ivy overthrow; Rutgers is outclassed in a major way in Big Ten hoops; NJIT finally just joined a league; St. Peter's, Fairleigh Dickinson, Rider and Monmouth don't have the pedigree to be atop the Garden State pedestal. So we go with Seton Hall, which could realistically fire its head coach come March.

Outlook: In sum: Villanova has a better chance to succeed in the Big East than Pittsburgh does in the ACC and/or Temple does in the American. It's also feeling like Jay Wright is settled in for the long haul with the program. He is Villanova basketball now, and college hoops overall feels better when you see Nova doing well. Pennsylvania, though: A very good state for college hoops. It goes beyond the Big 5 in Philly. Robert Morris has ascended under Andy Toole, and Bucknell is almost always near the Patriot League's ceiling.

Outlook: Ed Cooley is commanding PC to a resurgence. Rhode Island has a very promising year ahead, but will Dan Hurley leave URI in the next one or two years for a bigger job? We think that's very possible, while Cooley's seemingly set in for many years ahead at PC. The Friars are the biggest program in the smallest state.

Jet915 wrote:Nebraska being there is a joke but even the author admits it. He chose Creighton while the other 3 chose the Huskers. Don't really get that at all but I'll take owning them every year over this...

Omaha1 wrote:

Jet915 wrote:Nebraska being there is a joke but even the author admits it. He chose Creighton while the other 3 chose the Huskers. Don't really get that at all but I'll take owning them every year over this...

There literally isn't a single metric where any unbiased person in this state would pick Nebraska over Creighton.