Preliminary Big East’s Best Teams

[Marat]

I don't know, I don't think Hurley is done with the Portal even if AK stays. Seems to me we still need to add a couple players. I guess they will be more in the reserve roll . But as of now our roster is not finalized.

 

[DFW HOYA]

Georgetown - I have no idea what this team's roster is at this point. Who is coming back?

Putting aside Thomas Sorber for now, six returning lettermen but only one starter (Malik Mack) to go along with four inbound transfers and four walk-ons.

 

[willie99]

St. John's is in the biggest sports market in the world, all their moves are magnified by 1000.

People are calling it the best portal class of all time, I think that's just the New York hyperbole speaking.

They lost the best guy in the portal. Although he may be NBA bound

I don’t think RJ was happy sitting the last 4 minutes of the season

Is that getting any play? Ricky choked

 

[jibsey]

They lost the best guy in the portal. Although he may be NBA bound

I don’t think RJ was happy sitting the last 4 minutes of the season

Is that getting any play? Ricky choked

Yes. And as a UConn fan I see that Ricky Scumbag is attempting to wrestle the attention and media focus from the Huskies in the BE with the story of his vigilantes and his son at Xavier.
He won the BE for 1 season, made a snarky comment about waving at Storrs and was planning a parade route when he was bounced out during the Tourney’s first weekend against a #10 seed.
There is only one thing to do to shut him and their fans up. kick them to the curb…..on the court.

 

[CL82]

Yes. And as a UConn fan I see that Ricky Scumbag is attempting to wrestle the attention and media focus from the Huskies in the BE with the story of his vigilantes and his son at Xavier.
He won the BE for 1 season, made a snarky comment about waving at Storrs and was planning a parade route when he was bounced out during the Tourney’s first weekend against a #10 seed.
There is only one thing to do to shut him and their fans up. kick them to the curb…..on the court.

You need to have a villain in any narrative. Fortunately, Rick happily obliges.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Shaka Smart is actively sabotaging what could have been a good team for Marquette.

I haven't followed the portal all that closely outside of UConn. Is Shaka still ignoring it?

 

[HooperScooper]

I haven't followed the portal all that closely outside of UConn. Is Shaka still ignoring it?

Looks like it. This is a portal commitment tracker that is broken down by conference and then teams. Nice little tool to keep track of things.
Transfer portal commitment tracker via ZAGSBLOG | Zagsblog

 

[MJ1]

I haven't followed the portal all that closely outside of UConn. Is Shaka still ignoring it?

Yes

 

[UconnU]

2000+ still in the portal. Gotta let it shake out.

Have we reached the point where there are more players in the portal than out of it?

 

[Fan1978]

I think the Top 7 will be pretty good.

UConn, St. John's, Creighton - Obvious

Xavier - Miller kind of blew it this year with a pretty talented team at Xavier, and Pitino Jr may be an improvement. Swain was a big loss. Conwell is good, but can be a pretty selfish player at times. I like the pickups.

Providence - English is on the hot seat. He gets a mulligan for Hopkins stealing PC's money, but he has a good squad coming in next year and a tournament bid is expected.

Marquette - Smart is way out on a limb with his roster management approach. We will find out if he is really smarter than everyone else next year.

Villanova - Neptune gone will help a lot by itself.

Others:

Depaul - Are they getting Gunn, Blocker and Benson back? If they are, Depaul won't suck. Enright was overrated and got more praise than he deserved in part because of his Adam Morrison look.

Butler - I have no way to judge if this batch of low-major transfers is better or worse than the last batch.

Georgetown - I have no idea what this team's roster is at this point. Who is coming back?

Seton Hall - I have defended Holloway for years, but if the rumors are right about them having some NIL money, and this is the team that they are ending up with, then Holloway may be in over his head.


I think overall the conference should be a little better than last year. The Top 3 should be Top 20 teams the whole season unless there are major injuries. Providence should be the 4th best team, but English has never proven he really knows how to win. We will find out.

Conwell is gone right now?

 

[HooperScooper]

Have we reached the point where there are more players in the portal than out of it?

There are about 3500 D1 players who would be eligible to enter the portal and there were 2200 players who entered. So that’s a resounding yes.

 

[superjohn]

There are about 3500 D1 players who would be eligible to enter the portal and there were 2200 players who entered. So that’s a resounding yes.

I think it's half of D1 players or something like that.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

As the rosters are finalized in the Big East UConn has so far 6 players who will see a lot of floor time with college competitive experience. Reed, Solo, Stew, Ross, Silas and Smith. Karaban would make the 7th. Without injuries in March or April crunch time Hurley pulls back to using 8 players.
I don’t know what other teams have added but it seems like the BE is a 2 team race for first with us and St. John’s.
Taking into consideration that we don’t know until play is going for a while how is the order in the BE lining up? Are there 2 other teams that can jump over or even compete with UConn or St. John’s?

I think it’s a one team race if you include UConn’s incoming class.

 

[CTBasketball]

St. John’s is getting all the press for their portal team. It bugs me, I can’t help it.

The portal has been integral to our success the last few years as well.

 

[jibsey]

The portal has been integral to our success the last few years as well.

As it is everyone’s but our first 9 players are not just portal the way St. John’s is. Pitino has said he doesn’t want HS players, now I think that is because he can’t get the level that say a Duke can get, he would surely take them but if Alex is back we have 3 starters, and even without him we will have at least 4 significant home grown contributors maybe 5 or 6.
I won’t defend or praise that scumbag Pitino even though we all know he’s a good coach.

 

[ctchamps]

As it is everyone’s but our first 9 players are not just portal the way St. John’s is. Pitino has said he doesn’t want HS players, now I think that is because he can’t get the level that say a Duke can get, he would surely take them but if Alex is back we have 3 starters, and even without him we will have at least 4 significant home grown contributors maybe 5 or 6.
I won’t defend or praise that scumbag Pitino even though we all know he’s a good coach.

LOL. And yet you did.

 

[mauconnfan]

They lost the best guy in the portal. Although he may be NBA bound

I don’t think RJ was happy sitting the last 4 minutes of the season

Is that getting any play? Ricky choked

I doubt Rick choked willie there was a lot more to that than meets the eye. Luis did something to make that happen or did something. He would’ve played if not for an incident so I actually applaud Rick sticking to his guns for whatever reason it was and losing with his best player on the bench. Luis deserved what he got and it was obviously irreparable.

 

[RuffRuff]

I haven't followed the portal all that closely outside of UConn. Is Shaka still ignoring it?

Shaka is a stubborn one. Even Painter is starting to use it.

Evanmaya came out with some analytics this week that the winning formula is brining back at least 50% of your minutes.

Right now between our 4 returners, we’re at about 82mpg/41%.

 

[auror]

Shaka is a stubborn one. Even Painter is starting to use it.

Evanmaya came out with some analytics this week that the winning formula is brining back at least 50% of your minutes.

Right now between our 4 returners, we’re at about 82mpg/41%.

Miya's things is 50% of a minutes played in the next season are filled by returning players, not minutes from the season before returning.

So as long as Ball, Reed, Ross, Stewart, and possibly Karaban play 50% of our minutes, we'd qualify. That's 100 minutes. Easy with AK (3-4 starters gets you to 100). Without him if we say Ball 30, Reed 28, Stewart 25, Ross would need to play at least 17 if those other estimates are accurate.

 

[willie99]

I doubt Rick choked willie there was a lot more to that than meets the eye. Luis did something to make that happen or did something. He would’ve played if not for an incident so I actually applaud Rick sticking to his guns for whatever reason it was and losing with his best player on the bench. Luis deserved what he got and it was obviously irreparable.

The Big East champion gets bounced in the first weekend, that's a choke my friend. Whatever the underlying circumstances may be, his team choked. The only 1 or 2 seed to not advance to the Elite 8. Never mind the Sweet 16

Maybe he should have worried a little less about Storrs, and have his team better prepared for Arkansas

 

[mauconnfan]

The Big East champion gets bounced in the first weekend, that's a choke my friend. Whatever the underlying circumstances may be, his team choked. The only 1 or 2 seed to not advance to the Elite 8. Never mind the Sweet 16

Maybe he should have worried a little less about Storrs, and have his team better prepared for Arkansas

Oh it’s a choke but not putting Luis in wasn’t a reason at all, he left him out the last 4 minutes regardless for other reasons was my point. I thought you were pointing out he choked not knowing he didn’t get RJ back in the game.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Not sure if Shaka has peaked but he has to change things up.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Yes. And as a UConn fan I see that Ricky Scumbag is attempting to wrestle the attention and media focus from the Huskies in the BE with the story of his vigilantes and his son at Xavier.
He won the BE for 1 season, made a snarky comment about waving at Storrs and was planning a parade route when he was bounced out during the Tourney’s first weekend against a #10 seed.
There is only one thing to do to shut him and their fans up. kick them to the curb…..on the court.

I don’t think the Boneyard grasps how close we were to a least a share of the BE
even with the injury to McNeeley .
Simply reverse
Improbable road losses to Nova 68-66 and SH 69-68
and a home loss to St John’s 66-62 and were tied with them .
Plus either Sweep Cteighton 68-63 or win at Xavier 76-72 in two other winnable games.
and we’re in sole possession

 

[jibsey]

I don’t think the Boneyard grasps how close we were to a least a share of the BE
even with the injury to McNeeley .
Simply reverse
Improbable road losses to Nova 68-66 and SH 69-68
and a home loss to St John’s 66-62 and were tied with them .
Plus either Sweep Cteighton 68-63 or win at Xavier 76-72 in two other winnable games.
and we’re in sole possession

Yup, we were close on a lot of stuff last year, even the eventual National Champion, and that was with us being compromised at PG.

 

[HiltonHeadJ]

Ifs and buts. Candy and nuts. Accept , if you can, that last year St John’s was better in regular season. As successful as UCONN has been , just learn that not every season will be a Natty. As for Creighton, I find this 6’8” PG from Howard to be VERY intriguing.