Rick Pitino (Dylan Christie/AMNY)
The Big East is at a crossroads; Tim Brosnan has taken up the role of commissioner in place of Val Ackerman, who had been in that position since the reformation of the conference in 2013. Beyond that, the league only had three teams qualify for the NCAA tournament last season (Villanova, UConn and St. John’s), which tied a modern low for the conference. Rick Pitino, who has coached St. John’s to two consecutive Big East championships, thinks that this year will be different.
“It’s all a guessing game right now, but I think that Marquette, and Xavier, and DePaul, and Georgetown and Providence are all going to have great resurgences because of the commitments of each school financially,” Pitino said.
Connecticut and St. John’s are predicted as the top two teams in the conference yet again, with Villanova coming in third. Seton Hall came in fourth, and they were the only other team in the conference to finish above .500; even then, a 10-10 conference record left the Pirates on the outside looking in come Selection Sunday. Shaheen Holloway was honored as the Big East coach of the year, but his guys aren’t projected to repeat their success from a season ago. Seton Hall is picked to finish ninth in the conference, but with 13 players coming in from the transfer portal, watch out for the Pirates to shock people yet again.
The highest ranked non-tourney team from last season is Marquette, the only team outside of the Huskies and Red Storm to receive a first-place vote.
“The group we have is one that is a terrific blend of returners and new players.” Marquette head coach Shaka Smart said. “What you’re going to see when we take the floor is a team with a lot of edge, a lot of connectivity, and a willingness to get our fingernails dirty.”
Smart’s squad missed the big dance for the first time since 2021 last year. Despite their 12-20 finish a season ago, the Golden Eagles have quite a strong nucleus, led by Huntington, New York native Nigel James Jr. The reigning Big East Freshman of the Year poured in 16.4 points a night last season; James was voted unanimously to the preseason All-Big East first team. Sophomore forward Royce Parham made the second team. Parham stands at 6’8 as a forward and averaged nearly a block per game last season to go with 12.5 points per game.
Providence may be the Big East’s greatest wild card. Bryan Hodgson was hired as their new head coach; Hodgson led South Florida to a conference championship last season before making the jump to Rhode Island. Not only are there questions about the regime change in Friartown, but there’s a major personnel question as well. Dink Pate’s eligibility is up in the air. Pate came from the NBA G League and intentionally turned down professional contracts to maintain his college eligibility, and Hodgson has been adamant that the 20-year-old guard – who averaged 17.3 points per game last season with the Westchester Knicks- should be eligible.
“We’re hoping that [the NCAA] makes the right decision,” Hodgson said. “We took Dink because a precedent was set that these young men can play college basketball… London Johnson was cleared to play at Louisville with the same contract details, structure and timeline that Dink Pate had.”
While Creighton was picked seventh in the Big East coach’s poll, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has the Blue Jays as one of the last four byes in the tournament. The Greg McDermott era ended last season; he retired after missing the NCAA tournament for just the fifth time in a 16-year run at the helm of the Blue Jays. Former High Point coach Alan Huss took the reins, Huss played for Creighton from 1997 to 2001 and has had two terms as an assistant coach spanning seven seasons. He has two Big East third-teamers at his disposal in Providence transfer Oswin Erhunmwunse and Jackson McAndrew, who missed most of last season.
College basketball is ever-changing; the five-in-five rule has made roster construction an adventure and the expanded 76 team NCAA tournament has changed the outlook of teams from the mid-major level all the way to the power conferences, and the Big East is certainly no exception. These changes, along with several other factors, make predicting the season nearly impossible, but trying to do just that is always a fun, if sometimes fruitless endeavor.
