2017-18 Big East Rankings

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

Way-Too-Early Top 25 for 2017-18 - Eamonn Brennan, ESPN - Tuesday April 4, 2017

4. Villanova Wildcats

During two straight springs, Villanova has waved farewell to two classes that lifted the program out of early-2010s doldrums and into the ranks of the national elite and oh, by the way, helped win the 2016 national title. Josh Hart followed 2016's love-in with perhaps the sport's best individual season in 2017; Kris Jenkins will forever occupy a vaunted place in hoops lore for his title-winning buzzer-beater. Combined with the losses of Ryan Arcidiacono and Daniel Ochefu last April, you might assume Villanova was in for a rebuild. At least a brief one, right? You'd assume wrong. Jalen Brunson will continue his ongoing lead-guard metamorphosis as a junior alongside Donte DiVincenzo, who was already up for it as a freshman, while Mikal Bridges and Eric Paschall continue to offer long, interchangeable work at the forward spots. Meanwhile, Omari Spellman -- a redshirt partial academic qualifier expected to be Ochefu's replacement last fall -- will finally step into the limelight, a limelight Jay Wright's program refuses to yield.

16. Xavier Musketeers

Trevon Bluiett thought long and hard about an NBA departure a year ago, only to return and have yet another huge season in Cincinnati. As of this writing, Bluiett has been quiet about his plans this spring. Which is to say: Like more than a few teams on this list, Xavier's outlook could vary wildly based on what its best player decides in the coming days and weeks. Edmond Sumner, despite still recovering from February's season-ending knee injury, declared for the NBA draft. J.P. Macura, Kaiser Gates, Tyrique Jones, Sean O'Mara and rising sophomore guard Quentin Goodin (who struggled for much of the season but flowered in the Elite Eight run) -- not to mention four four-star prospects, including two top-100 guys -- will be very good even if Bluiett departs but downright scary if he remains in the fold.

19. Butler Bulldogs

The Bulldogs are suffering their fair share of losses this offseason, from Andrew Chrabascz, one of the Big East's best big men, to Tyler Lewis, one of the nation's best passers from the point. But they're also retaining plenty. Kamar Baldwin and Tyler Wideman are a potent inside-out offensive combo, and George Washington transfer Paul Jorgensen could assume point guard duties. The big question is Kelan Martin. Martin spent most of 2016-17 as an inefficient volume scorer, but he had his best, most efficient performances of the season after Butler coach Chris Holtmann began to bring him off the bench down the stretch. If Martin plays like the post-bench version, Butler will be hard to stop. If he backslides, the Bulldogs might not be able to match the firepower that fueled their late-season run to the Sweet 16.

Honorable Mentions: Seton Hall, Purdue, Northwestern, Virginia Tech, Creighton, VCU, USC, Wisconsin, TCU.

[Irishdawg]

Villanova
Xavier
Providence
Seton Hall
Creighton
Butler
St. John's
Marquette
DePaul
Georgetown

So much depends on who stays and who goes in terms of Bluiett, Delgado and any transfers that may occur.

Providence loses nobody on a team that finished third. Not a player that played. As of now, I am picking them to finish first in the league.

I know this board tends to slant to the new members, but has Xavier ever exceeded where they were picked in a poll? Preseason, I think they were slotted second and finished seventh.

Fazekas is transferring, but they aren't anyone losing major at this point.

[Hall2012]

Assuming
Bluiett leaves
Patton leave
Seton Hall gets Duval(Why not?)

1. Villanova
2. Seton Hall
3. Providence
4. St. John's
5. Butler
6. Xavier
7. Creighton
8. Marquette
9. DePaul
10. Georgetown

That's quite the assumption lol. And a clear example of why these rankings are way too early. If they get Duval, they could well be Villanova's biggest regular season threat since realignment. If they don't, they're likely middle of the pack (though I'd put them upper middle as they'll have a team of mainly seniors). Then the worst case scenario - they don't get Duval and Delgado leaves early -possibly drops them into the bottom 3. It may somehow be more of a state of flux than they were in last year waiting on Whitehead's decision. If he returned they were likely preseason #2 to Nova, if not they were somewhere in the middle of the pack - exactly what happened.

[DudeAnon]

No love for Marquette, they had 2 stud freshmen this year.

[FriarJ]

Please I'm begging each of you pick PC for 8th-10th again. Please? I know you each have it in you. Your terrible predictions have not run their course, you can do it one more time.

[NJRedman]

Please I'm begging each of you pick PC for 8th-10th again. Please? I know you each have it in you. Your terrible predictions have not run their course, you can do it one more time.

You finished 3rd due to tie breakers with the 3 other teams. Could have easily been a 6th or 7th place finish.

[Hall2012]

Please I'm begging each of you pick PC for 8th-10th again. Please? I know you each have it in you. Your terrible predictions have not run their course, you can do it one more time.

And you were the 7th best team in the league last year? Congratulations.

[Westbrook#36]

I predict whoever is slotted 7th and 8th in the annual preseason poll will play the disrespect/slighted/overlooked card all year. Even though everyone who finishes in the top 8 could very well be at least a bubble team. Someone is finishing 7th and 8th(seriously people it isn't personal), both those teams could very easily be dancing next year, the BE is going to be very deep.

[FriarJ]

Please I'm begging each of you pick PC for 8th-10th again. Please? I know you each have it in you. Your terrible predictions have not run their course, you can do it one more time.

And you were the 7th best team in the league last year? Congratulations.

I see so this is not a predicted order of finish and more an arbitrary who each of feel is better despite the record. The OP should have been clearer. I could have sworn PC was picked for 9th by the experts on this board and finished tied for 3rd. My bad.

At least by doing it who we think is better then we can never be wrong.

[SJHooper]

With adding 2 decent bigs (not counting Clark) next year: St. John's is a top 5 team. My guess would be on the bubble.

Without adding 2 decent bigs next year: St. John's is a 6-8 team. My guess would be NIT.

Give me a guy like Gonzaga's big and we are instantly a Sweet 16 threat. The problem is that our bigs have not just been average, they have been among the very worst. At the moment we are soft and frail. We get barely any offense from our bigs overall and barely any rebounding ability. Adding legit 6'9 240 lb guys can get us to the tourney while adding no one but Clark will probably get us 16-17 wins and an NIT berth at best. I hear good things about Clark, but let's be real he barely played at MSU and he's not Spellman. I expect him to be similar to Christian Jones, maybe a bit better. I'm nervous we will only add 1 big next year instead of 2 but that will not be enough. We already lost Sima, Williams, and probably Amar. We are losing bigs faster than we are gaining them and that's a big problem. I don't understand how teams like Gonzaga can fish bigs out of Poland who turn out to be monsters, yet when we dip into the Euro pool the players look like they will never catch up to the speed at this level. We already had good guard play last year and saw where that got us.