Grantland preview of the Big East

[Jet915]

Pretty amusing write up of the Big East this season.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9859284/mark-titus-previews-2013-14-ncaa-basketball-season-starting-big-east

[Omaha1]

Written by Mark titus who is the Club Trillion guy.

Are you prepared to live in a world where a white walk-on named Doug who wears a T-shirt under his jersey is the best player in college basketball? Because there's a good chance it will happen. I don't want to speak for all walk-ons, but I'm thinking this is kind of like the Zach Braff/Kickstarter situation. On one hand, I'm excited for what McDermott can do for the walk-on community. He's good enough to do for walk-ons what Billy Madison did for kids who pee their pants. Then again, McDermott is almost certainly going to steal the walk-on spotlight from those anonymous faces on the end of the bench whose stories deserve to be told. I'm sure I'll end up leading the McDermott for Player of the Year campaign, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about the consequences.

[MU Viking]

Most Marquette fans are still a little bitter at Crean for the way in which he left (not that he left, but how), and so his little shot at Crean was beautiful. Entertaining read. It's going to be an extremely competitive conference season.

I don't think it is going to quite compare to the uber-conference with Louisville, UCONN, Pitt, Syracuse, et al, but if you look at teams 1-10, I'm not sure there's as consistently strong a conference, top to bottom, elsewhere. Wish every other team luck and wins when they aren't playing Marquette!

[Burrito]

UConn, Louisville, Syracuse and Pitt have been some of the most consistent programs in the Big East. Three of those schools have Hall of Fame Coaches. But in the next five years all three of those coaches will most likely be retired. Even if Conference realignment didn't happen, there was probably going to be a bit of a shakeup in the pecking order of the Big East with some programs dropping and others moving up. For example, Syracuse will be going from a Hall of Fame Coach with 900 wins to a Non Hall of fame coach with zero wins. Big Difference.

[TheHall]

UConn, Louisville, Syracuse and Pitt have been some of the most consistent programs in the Big East. Three of those schools have Hall of Fame Coaches. But in the next five years all three of those coaches will most likely be retired. Even if Conference realignment didn't happen, there was probably going to be a bit of a shakeup in the pecking order of the Big East with some programs dropping and others moving up. For example, Syracuse will be going from a Hall of Fame Coach with 900 wins to a Non Hall of fame coach with zero wins. Big Difference.

While on the other hand the BE is now home to some best young/upcoming coaches in the game with Wright, Buzz, JT3, Cooley, Mack and possibly Willard & Miller. A solid foundation to build a league on.

[mel ott]

UConn, Louisville, Syracuse and Pitt have been some of the most consistent programs in the Big East. Three of those schools have Hall of Fame Coaches. But in the next five years all three of those coaches will most likely be retired. Even if Conference realignment didn't happen, there was probably going to be a bit of a shakeup in the pecking order of the Big East with some programs dropping and others moving up. For example, Syracuse will be going from a Hall of Fame Coach with 900 wins to a Non Hall of fame coach with zero wins. Big Difference.

While on the other hand the BE is now home to some best young/upcoming coaches in the game with Wright, Buzz, JT3, Cooley, Mack and possibly Willard & Miller. A solid foundation to build a league on.

Agree, let's not forget Coach Mac at Creighton- has a good record (even without his son) and a class guy and one of the few coaches that can still dunk!!! Just did it last year at practice. That is a lot of payload that needs a boost.

[Bulldog_Muskie]

I rather enjoyed how he compared Butler's situation to finding out your house was burned down, your family was murdered, and you've been framed for it. That's how several Butler fans that I know reacted to this offseason

That being said I think many people will be surprised by Butler this year!

[XBand15]

I laughed really hard at his piece on Semaj. While I believe we have better players and a better team then he suggests, it is absolutely what will happen if we start skidding. But also, I always appreciate good humor in sports-writing.