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Message: [QUOTE="Storrs South, post: 3955361, member: 7275"] [U]Winners:[/U] [B]Villanova[/B] - kept 2 of 3 best players to remain favorites to win conference coupled with #17 recruiting class in the country and Trey Patterson a top commit who got to campus early in 2020 now enters the mix. [B]UConn[/B] - 0 non-graduating transfers and retained 2 5th year seniors who were BE DPOY and 6MOY to likely be favorites to finish second (or third) in Big East. Lost best player to the draft but offset by top 10 recruiting class. Defense should be top 15-20 in the country with Akok's full return. Just a question of where offense will come from. [B]Xavier [/B]- Brings back their entire rotation except Jason Carter, their top eight scorers, eight of their top nine in minutes per game and likely favorites to finish (second or) third in Big East. After last year's flop missing the tourney, Steele needs to make the tourney with this returning cast or he goes firmly on the hot seat. [B]Seton Hall [/B]- Richmond, Yetna, and retained one of their best players in Cale, keeping them strongly in contention to make tourney despite losing their best player Sandro. [B]Butler [/B]- Everyone came back and added Groce from Eastern Michigan. Finished second to last in the conference last year, probably slated now for anywhere from 4th to 7th in Big East play and an outside shot at the tourney. [U]Incomplete:[/U] [B]St. John's [/B]- this really rides on Champagnie coming back. The amount of turnover on this team right now after playing above expectations would have me concerned. Posh is legit, they got some decent guys back from the portal including Montez and Wheeler. Not idea if Soriano can play at this level coming from the A-10. So Julian will be the tipping point for if this team can get back to being bubble caliber next season [B]Marquette - [/B]On the one hand, Wojo isn't their coach anymore so that's a win for them. On the other, the roster is in complete and total flux. Dawson Garcia is testing the NBA waters, I imagine he returns which would be big for the Golden Eagles. They lost Torrence who had been pretty bad for them so not much to sweat. I'm leaving them as incomplete since the roster is far from settled and are still pretty active in the portal. [U]Losers:[/U] [B]Creighton[/B] - they lost everyone, rotation, stars, best commit. Dark days in Omaha ahead. No idea how coach can stay on going forward. A finish between 7-10 is in the cards for Big East play standings. [B]Georgetown[/B] - Lost Qudus to cross town rival, Blair arguably their best player opted not to extend his career. They did get Rice from Citadel, but too much talent shedded to be competitive next season. They bring in a great recruiting class but probably finish between 7-10 in standings. [B]DePaul[/B] - it's DePaul, they lost their coach and whatever talented players they had. Had a top recruiting class before Coach got fired and that's partially gone. Long rebuild ahead. Will likely finish 11 again. [B]Providence - [/B]Like UConn, lost their best player to the draft. Difference is they have only the #63 ranked 2021 class coming in and while they did get a decent player transferring from Indiana, the loss of Duke will be felt. It wasn't a good team in 2020-2021 and they did not do enough for that to change in 2021-2022. Would peg them for finishing between 7-10 in the standings. [/QUOTE]

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