Zag's Pre Season Preview

For what it's worth I see the league playing out like this:

1. Georgetown
2. St Johns
3. Villanova
4. Marquette
5. Providence/Xavier


I think it's a mistake to sleep on Georgetown, believe it or not I think they can be as good, if not better next season. They return everyone on the roster except Porter. And Starks, Lubick, Trawik etc caused us as much trouble as Porter when we played them. They've got size with Lubick and Hopkins, they've got good guard play, and they're all juniors and seniors. Georgetown is going to be plenty good.

Villanova I think could be pretty good, but I think they're going to get beat up on the boards. As far as I can tell Uchefu is the only guy they have above 6'6. He's going to have to go from being a sub, to being their only full-time big man. I'd worry about their lack of size.

Marquette will be good, but they lost all 3 of their starting guards. Experienced guard play goes a long way. I like Gardner and Wilson, but a lot of their success will depend on the freshmen they have coming in.
 
For what it's worth I see the league playing out like this:

1. Georgetown
2. St Johns
3. Villanova
4. Marquette
5. Providence/Xavier


I think it's a mistake to sleep on Georgetown, believe it or not I think they can be as good, if not better next season. They return everyone on the roster except Porter. And Starks, Lubick, Trawik etc caused us as much trouble as Porter when we played them. They've got size with Lubick and Hopkins, they've got good guard play, and they're all juniors and seniors. Georgetown is going to be plenty good.

Villanova I think could be pretty good, but I think they're going to get beat up on the boards. As far as I can tell Uchefu is the only guy they have above 6'6. He's going to have to go from being a sub, to being their only full-time big man. I'd worry about their lack of size.

Marquette will be good, but they lost all 3 of their starting guards. Experienced guard play goes a long way. I like Gardner and Wilson, but a lot of their success will depend on the freshmen they have coming in.
Click to expand...

Don't sell Buzz Williams short
His kids play hard
He gets a lot of mileage out of his team year in and year out
They will be very good again next year
As far as Nova is concerned, Pinkston is a beast on the boards
He has improved a great deal since enrolling there
With Whittington returning, G'town will be very competitive next year as well
Having said all that, GO ST JOHN'S!!
This is the most talented roster we have had in a long time. This could be our year!!!
 
Number 3, interesting. Just think, if we can hit 3s and make free throws we could be in for fun ride. Is it me or are there at least 6 to 7 teams in the Big East that can potentially flirt with the NCAAs this year
Click to expand...

I believe if things go our way this season (ie, no significant injuries; no ineligibles), then we can be amongst the top 3 teams in the conference. The trip abroad could also end up being beneficial for our squad.

I also believe there are about 6 or 7 conference teams that'll wear their "dancing" shoes in March. So, it isn't just your belief.
Click to expand...

I believe at this point, you have to consider Georgetown and Marquette 1-2 (in either order), and Seton Hall and Depaul 9-10 (in either order). Then, I think you can pretty much justify any of the possible combinations for the 3rd through 8th spots. All that can change between now and the start of the year, and even after the season starts.
Click to expand...

I'm not sold on Georgetown being one of the top 2 teams next year. Good coach, great defense, can shoot it, but they lose their best player and in my opinion we are more talented. That's just on paper of course.
Click to expand...

Think game coaching can be over rated ex Wooden , great coach but always had great players Calipari always has great players Guess what I am saying great players make great coaches and great .players conceal .coaching weaknesses
 
SJU is loaded. No other way to put it.

This has the potential to be a big time team. If you take Zags pre-season predictions (and my guess is most of the media stuff coming out the next few months will be close) SJU would have 4 of the top 16 players in the conference (2 on 1st team and 2 on the 3rd team with 6 total first team players). Top rookie as well.

And that does not include Sanchez and Pointer who I think will be HUGE players.

Player for player SJU has quite frankly the most talented team in the new conference.
Click to expand...

Think Sanchez can be a special players If he lives up to expectations? Many think he will be an NBA caliber.player
 
Nova will be among the top 2 or 3 teams in our conference every year until they prove otherwise. Same with G'Town. SJ and Providence have the talent now but haven't proven it yet. SJ and PC are 2 major keys to the Big East with most of the big boys gone. If neither team does anything major within the next few years I really think the conference will suffer. If both teams do major things it will really boost the respectability. I still can't believe everyone seems to assume Creighton won't take a step or 2 backwards going way up in conference competition and losing key players who helped set up McDermott. I noticed with McDermott that playing against MVC opponents they didn't have the quickness to run at him and get a hand in his face before he shot the ball. He got tons of open looks. He will still make plenty of shots, but no doubt he will take a step back playing against almost entirely NCAA tourney talented teams.
 
Anytime you have a player of McDermott's caliber, you have a chance to win. Keep in mind that of the 9 new teams Crieghton will be playing, only 4 were "tournament teams" from last year, now that ND, Syracuse & Pitt are gone.
 
Nova will be among the top 2 or 3 teams in our conference every year until they prove otherwise..
Click to expand...

Joe, they just did prove otherwise. Nova hasn't been very good the last three years. Does SJU have to prove they belong among the elite? Sure.
But Nova isn't a lock to be among the conference leaders every year, just based on rep.

Do I happen to think they'll be good next year? Yes, I do. But don't give them more credit than they deserve. They haven't been an elite program lately, you can't project them being atop the conference year in and year out.
 
Nova will be among the top 2 or 3 teams in our conference every year until they prove otherwise.
Click to expand...

IMO, "will be" is kind of a blanket statement. Potentially being amongst the top 3 sounds better. I could see 'Nova being amongst the top 5 teams in the conference on a consistent basis.

Nevertheless, I might could see G'town consistently being amongst the top 3 (in the conference), but I'm not sure I'd consistently place 'Nova into that category.
 
Winds blow, rain falls and Joe overrates Jay Wright. He's had 4 great regular seasons and 4 great tourneys out of 12 seasons on the bench. FWIW I think Joe's real point is he's only sucked once since 2004.
 
I believe in the past decade Nova has made the tourney 8/10 80% of the time. That is fantastic. No other way to look at that really. They are one of those teams that always gives us trouble except 2011. Not just us either...they can slay the giants pretty routinely while we get blown out by the giants. It's embarrassing taking your friends to MSG with your SJ gear on and having them rip on you as SJ gets blown out. SJ needs to become a team that is expected to be able to hang with the G'Town's, Marquette's, both in the standings and during games against them.

Someone said there are only 4 tourney teams Creighton will face. Ok, but 2 others were right on the bubble...us and PC. Creighton hung right in there with Cincy but we beat them twice when they were ranked and we were young and unranked. Cincy always seems to be overrated. When they played Duke they got crushed. Not saying we have a Duke equivalent in our conference, but we are easily the deepest conference out there when taken completely. Creighton would lose a close game to Wichita St then they would get a cupcake the next game to set them back on track. Well, in our conference that cupcake doesn't exist. The closest cupcakes we have are A) a Seton Hall team that was ranked and should have made the tourney 2 yrs ago and B ) DePaul who has suffered but has a senior laden team of a few very good players and is never a guaranteed win.
 
I think we can all agree that this first season will be very interesting to say the least. In a perfect world we manage to get 7 teams in the NCAA. Yes, I know that is a major stretch unless we all do some serious damage with our non-conference slate. But even if we get 5 teams in the NCAA and say 2 in the NIT, that's still 70% of the conference in post season play. It's only June but just think, we are 2 weeks away from officially ushering in a new era.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top