Athlon Sports 2014 Big East Preview

Didn't Butler lose a ton? And they struggled mightily towards the end in the A-10. The Big East will be even less forgiving. Creighton may well finish top 3, but I just haven't seen any proof yet that Creighton can lose 2 top players, have literally 1 main player do everything, and somehow do just as good in the Big East as they did the MVC where they had some teams most people never even knew existed i.e. Bradley. Big East defenses will zero in on him much more aggressively, especially knowing he is without 2 top role players now. Where we finish depends on 4 main things IMO. 1) Does Jordan live up to expectations and can he penetrate consistently? 2) Is Sanchez the real deal? 3) Will Hooper be a true 3 point specialist that we sorely need? 4) Will Harrison finally get it together and score 20 PPG while also being a good teammate and improve greatly from 3?

I expect 2/4 of those questions to be yes and 2/4 to be no. Which ones specifically, who knows?
 
i respect athlon. i get a sense they're usually on the money.
i'll go along with its read that the conference is much weaker with the prediction that no team will finish in the top ten. i hate to be pollyanna...but with that being said, i see us being right at the top.
the team is together another year. the assistants have a track record of coaching players up. the european trip has to help. we have backup at every position. a weaker league translates into a better W-L record. go redmen!
 
I see us finishing top 3. I dont think Marquette will be as good as last year. We almost beat them at the end of the season without Harrison and Branch injured. We return and add too much coupled with our returning sophs likely to be a bit stronger and improved. Georgetown will still be good. This league, while maybe not as top heavy, will be pretty tough overall with a lot of depth through the middle of the league. Lots of team's capable of moving to the top, but SJU will really be stacked and we finally bolster our 4/5 spots with Sanchez and Gift and add a top 20 player/PG. We were the #1 shotblocking team in the country last year and we should be even better this year.
 
I see us finishing top 3. I dont think Marquette will be as good as last year. We almost beat them at the end of the season without Harrison and Branch injured. We return and add too much coupled with our returning sophs likely to be a bit stronger and improved. Georgetown will still be good. This league, while maybe not as top heavy, will be pretty tough overall with a lot of depth through the middle of the league. Lots of team's capable of moving to the top, but SJU will really be stacked and we finally bolster our 4/5 spots with Sanchez and Gift and add a top 20 player/PG. We were the #1 shotblocking team in the country last year and we should be even better this year.

And let's not forget Marquette barely sneaked by Davidson in the first round of the tournament. But, Buzz has a great recruiting class coming in, not that that automatically translates to wins, as we know :)
 
I think a lot of people overlook the fact that having so much talent is great but it might be tough to find roles where they all excel. Ultimately, this is up to Lavin to maximize their potential putting them in positions to succeed. I just hope that Harrison isn't thrown off his game since he's so used to being the guy with the ball and now Jordan another "the guy" type player is here. At the very least we will have many more scoring threats: Jordan, Sanchez, Hooper. No matter who opponents cover, we will finally have someone who should be open and able to score consistently.
 
Here's another one, from cbssports.com:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebas...nference-catchup-the-big-east-gets-a-makeover

They don't pick us to finish in the top 5 in the league, and don't seem to be very high on us at all.

He's right about the offense. We have potential, but there are a lot of offensive questions that need to be answered, and until the dlo situation is resolved and the newcomers prove their worth, we're going to be a notch below the top teams in the league.
 
Villanova: Jay Wright's team will be better than it was last year, when it won 20 and made the NCAAs. Ryan Arcidiacono is a fledgling Big East star.

Haha...Arc's numbers weren't even really that impressive if you look at them. We have Jakarr the ROY who beat him out, and just added a 5 star PG, a 25 yr old national team player, and a 3 pt machine (up until now at least). Add Harrison (top 3 Big East scorer), Greene (when he's on, he's money), Branch, Obekpa (#1 shot blocker), Pointer, etc. and on paper this is an easy tourney team. I know we haven't proven much recently, but on paper this is arguably the best and deepest SJ team in decades. Still think we deserved more hype from CBS. 3 potential NBA draft picks on this team.
 
I see sj as very similar to 1989 seton hall with solid front court and exc back court...3 pt shots made will determine record..
 
I think a lot of people overlook the fact that having so much talent is great but it might be tough to find roles where they all excel. Ultimately, this is up to Lavin to maximize their potential putting them in positions to succeed.

The easiet way to do that, IMO, is to press full court. Just tell the guys to go all-out with it for a 3 or 4 minute stretch, because they would be coming out of the game regardless. Also, having someone like Obekpa in the back of it, for the times that the press would get beat, would be a huge strength for us.
 
I see us finishing top 3. I dont think Marquette will be as good as last year. We almost beat them at the end of the season without Harrison and Branch injured. We return and add too much coupled with our returning sophs likely to be a bit stronger and improved. Georgetown will still be good. This league, while maybe not as top heavy, will be pretty tough overall with a lot of depth through the middle of the league. Lots of team's capable of moving to the top, but SJU will really be stacked and we finally bolster our 4/5 spots with Sanchez and Gift and add a top 20 player/PG. We were the #1 shotblocking team in the country last year and we should be even better this year.

Hopefully, Josh Smith doesn't eat us up as he did at UCLA. Of course we didn't have Obekpa then.
 
I see us finishing top 3. I dont think Marquette will be as good as last year. We almost beat them at the end of the season without Harrison and Branch injured. We return and add too much coupled with our returning sophs likely to be a bit stronger and improved. Georgetown will still be good. This league, while maybe not as top heavy, will be pretty tough overall with a lot of depth through the middle of the league. Lots of team's capable of moving to the top, but SJU will really be stacked and we finally bolster our 4/5 spots with Sanchez and Gift and add a top 20 player/PG. We were the #1 shotblocking team in the country last year and we should be even better this year.

Hopefully, Josh Smith doesn't eat us up as he did at UCLA. Of course we didn't have Obekpa then.

We didn't have Obekpa which is huge for us. We also didn't have Jakarr, Sanchez, Jones and Gift is a back as well. We have a lot more size than we had. If smith hasn't gotten in shape, he will struggle to run with anybody for more than a quarter.
 
A key for next season will be how well this team improves its' FG and 3pt shooting..Teams will still zone us to death, until its' proven this gang can shoot right. And, team defense needs to tighten.
 
A key for next season will be how well this team improves its' FG and 3pt shooting..Teams will still zone us to death, until its' proven this gang can shoot right. And, team defense needs to tighten.

The team should try to avoid the half court game as much as possible on both ends. The pressure need to be turned up much higher next year to get the most out of this team. When we are in the halfcourt, outside shooting and rebounding will be the two biggest keys to success IMO. I'm hoping to see a lot more penetration as well.
 
I see sj as very similar to 1989 Seton Hall with solid front court and exc back court...3 pt shots made will determine record..

That's a very interesting comparison. The only difference is that the 1989 Seton Hall team was a senior dominated team. Still, I like the comparison. Jordan would have to be our "John Morton" or "Gerald Greene", Harrison would be our "Andrew Gaze", Jakaar would be our "Darryl Walker", & Sanchez could be our version of "Ramon Ramos". That was one of my earliest memories of college basketball, I remember rooting for the Pirates b/c they were from The Big East and were the surprise of the nation that year. Not to be forgotten was our Redmen beating St. Louis that year for the NIT crown. Lets just say from your lips to God's ear. ; )
 
A key for next season will be how well this team improves its' FG and 3pt shooting..Teams will still zone us to death, until its' proven this gang can shoot right. And, team defense needs to tighten.

The team should try to avoid the half court game as much as possible on both ends. The pressure need to be turned up much higher next year to get the most out of this team. When we are in the halfcourt, outside shooting and rebounding will be the two biggest keys to success IMO. I'm hoping to see a lot more penetration as well.

No reason we shouldn't be able to fastbreak before their defense is set, especially since we have Obekpa, God's Gift, Sanchez and Sampson rebounding.
 
I expect to have some improved half court production as well though, with the addition of another big forward in Sanchez who will take some heat off Jakarr and Rysheed in the lineup. I don't think we should be afraid of the half court game, especially with talented guards we have on the roster. Our half court woes haven't been only shooting. It has been due to lack of dribble penetration and no post scoring. Two of those issues should be improved this year. I think our strength will certainly be in our running game, but we have to improve half court. Obekpa developing his inside scoring and adding gift should help too.
 
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