Holy Land fan poll - who finishes in 7th this season?

[Omaha1]

Vote for who you think finishes 7th this men's hoops season.

10 - DePaul
9 - Butler
8 - Creighton

[hoyahooligan]

Had to go with Marquette. I actually have Butler here and Marquette 9th, but since Butler's off the board and Marquette's still on it.

[DudeAnon]

Sorry Marquette but this is the definition of a transition year. Just hope for good signs from Wojo, a strong 2015 class and maybe a .500 record.

[xavierfano8]

I have Butler 7th. They get Rose Jones back this year and it should really take some of the pressure off Dunham. The rest of the Big East probably hasn't seen much of him, but Xavier has played Butler for awhile now and he really does a lot for them.

[R to the OB]

Here's what I have so far:
10 - DePaul
9 - Butler
8 - Marquette
7 - St. John's - The Johnnies have good talent in the backcourt, but, like the schools proceeding them, have both a talent and a depth shortage in the front court. Plus, the Johnnies over the last few years have under-performed under Lavin. I see no reason why that doesn't continue this year. Hence why I have them at 7.

[marquette]

I couldn't bring myself to vote for us, but I definitely get the sentiment. Hey, last year's 7th place team (Georgetown) was 18-15 overall, 8-10 BE, and an NIT berth. That's not so terrible.

[NJRedman]

Here's what I have so far:
10 - DePaul
9 - Butler
8 - Marquette
7 - St. John's - The Johnnies have good talent in the backcourt, but, like the schools proceeding them, have both a talent and a depth shortage in the front court. Plus, the Johnnies over the last few years have under-performed under Lavin. I see no reason why that doesn't continue this year. Hence why I have them at 7.

Under preformed and still finished tied for 3rd last season.

[GumbyDamnit!]

Here's what I have so far:
10 - DePaul
9 - Butler
8 - Marquette
7 - St. John's - The Johnnies have good talent in the backcourt, but, like the schools proceeding them, have both a talent and a depth shortage in the front court. Plus, the Johnnies over the last few years have under-performed under Lavin. I see no reason why that doesn't continue this year. Hence why I have them at 7.

It's hard for me to think that a backcourt of Jordan and Harrison will not lead to better than 7th. But then again I thought the backcourt of Starks and DSR was perhaps the best in the league last year and they had a tough year.

I voted for SHU. I think perhaps the most important player to any one team this year is Sterling Gibbs for SHU. They will need someone to truly lead that team, and teach all of that young talent how to play the right way, and make sure the ball goes where it needs to go. I was a big fan of Edwin and think he will be missed a great deal, and Gene Teague was clearly one of the more underrated big man in the conference. I think it is asking a lot of Frosh to take the reigns of a team in such a competitive conference. I think this SHU team will be a lot like the Nova team that brought in Foye, Sumpter, Frasier & Ray. They're going to take some lumps learning how to play at this next level in year 1. In a couple years I expect them to be very good, as long as the talent doesn't bolt to the next level.

[SJHooper]

How is SJ expected to go from 3rd and missing the NCAA tourney by the skin of their teeth to 7th? Sanchez is gone but didn't do much, Godsgift is gone but didn't do much. The only loss that will hurt a bit is Sampson. But as I've said, he was still a very raw player that really only did one thing great: dunk and make highlight plays. He has a ton of potential but certainly didn't play to it at SJ.

I think people are seriously undermining the fact that Jordan will be a Soph. He was really starting to get hot last year and hit his stride. Harrison is always good and will only be better as a Senior. We still have Greene, we still have Pointer, we still have Branch, we still have Obekpa. We import 7 ft De La Rosa and the rebounding machine Thomas. So yes we lose some offense, but the offense we lose took lots of terrible shots (Sampson and Sanchez). Having Harrison and Jordan handling more of the scoring opportunities will lead to more FT's and higher percentage shots. Many also forget that Obekpa while far from an offensive force, showed clear improvement in that area last season.

It just seems to defy logic to have a 3rd place team lose 1 decent (not great) player and drop off the map even though almost all of that 3rd place team is that much more experienced now. Our rebounding was awful in the past few seasons…if Thomas can rebound half as good as I hear, that means more scoring opportunities for our stud guards.

Very young teams struggle and experienced teams seem to perform better. That's the tendency. I'll always bet on the experienced veteran team over the diaper dandy's even if they are top 100 recruits. I don't take SJ being voted 7th by some as being personal but it just seems to defy logic.

[stever20]

How is SJ expected to go from 3rd and missing the NCAA tourney by the skin of their teeth to 7th? Sanchez is gone but didn't do much, Godsgift is gone but didn't do much. The only loss that will hurt a bit is Sampson. But as I've said, he was still a very raw player that really only did one thing great: dunk and make highlight plays. He has a ton of potential but certainly didn't play to it at SJ.

I think people are seriously undermining the fact that Jordan will be a Soph. He was really starting to get hot last year and hit his stride. Harrison is always good and will only be better as a Senior. We still have Greene, we still have Pointer, we still have Branch, we still have Obekpa. We import 7 ft De La Rosa and the rebounding machine Thomas. So yes we lose some offense, but the offense we lose took lots of terrible shots (Sampson and Sanchez). Having Harrison and Jordan handling more of the scoring opportunities will lead to more FT's and higher percentage shots. Many also forget that Obekpa while far from an offensive force, showed clear improvement in that area last season.

It just seems to defy logic to have a 3rd place team lose 1 decent (not great) player and drop off the map even though almost all of that 3rd place team is that much more experienced now. Our rebounding was awful in the past few seasons…if Thomas can rebound half as good as I hear, that means more scoring opportunities for our stud guards.

Very young teams struggle and experienced teams seem to perform better. That's the tendency. I'll always bet on the experienced veteran team over the diaper dandy's even if they are top 100 recruits. I don't take SJ being voted 7th by some as being personal but it just seems to defy logic.

Part of it is the difference between 3-7 was 2 games. St John's was 1 loss to Georgetown from being the 7 seed last year. It's not like some other conferences where the difference is 4-5 games.

The problem St John's has is they still have Lavin.