Donte' Greene departs the Orange despite the fact SU has the returning talent to be a National Championship contender. Throw together one of the premier point guards in the country Jonny Flynn with two sharp shooters, Eric Devendorf and Andy Rautins returning from torn ACLs, a solid center Arinze Onuaku, possibly the best 6'4'' rebounder in the country Paul Harris, a European glue guy in Kristof Ongenaet, a few stud freshmen and several other returning bench players and it's obvious Donte' Greene is leaving a stacked SU team.
The Orange look to repeat what UCONN did in 2008 next year. The Huskies struggled tremendously with a team loaded with underclassmen; UCONN finished 17-14 and missing the NCAA and NIT Tournaments. In 2007, UCONN turned it around with the same core of players to enter the 2008 NCAA Tournament as a four seed.
The Orange as mentioned above have a similar core of underclassmen and are poised to make a similar turnaround.
Jim Calhoun will have all of their key players back for the 2008-2009 season. All-Conference players Jeff Adrien, A.J. Price, Hasheem Thabeet will return as well as role players Stanley Robinson, Craig Austrie, and Gavin Edwards. UCONN only loses back up guard Doug Wiggins, but incoming star guard Kemba Walker will make UCONN fans forget Wiggins.
After a few down years, it's pretty evident the Huskies will once again be a premier team in America.
The Huskies won't be the only Big East team threatening to take the top spot in the national polls.
Pitt and Notre Dame return some of the most impressive cores of any team in the entire country.
The Panthers will feature a Boston Celtics like trio in All-Conference forwards Sam Young and DeJaun Blair, but also stud guard Levance Fields. The Panthers will in all likelihood be a top ten if not a top five team in the first preseason poll. Young and Blair make up the best tandem of forwards in the Big East (Hibbert and Adrien are a close second though).
The best forward in the Big East and probably second best in the country plays for a team unmentioned so far. Luke Harangody of Notre Dame returns for his junior season after putting up 20-10 after 20-10 game in 2008. 'Gody averaged over 23 points and 11 boards a game during conference play.
To compliment the stud forward, the Irish also return one of the top three point shooters in the country in Kyle McAlarney. The guard who missed most of the 2007 season because of a suspension for drugs, torched opposing defenses with his long range shooting.
South Bend's inside-outside game will help the Fighting Irish contend for a national championship.
Have you had enough of premier Big East teams?
Well there's two more teams that will most likely find themselves ranked with two more that will enter the 2008 season as sleepers with big time potential.
Marquette and Villanova return a large portion of their core rosters.
Only Jerel McNeal and coach Tom Crean left Marquette, but the Golden Eagles should still be in solid shape come March. Guard Dominic James and small forward Lazar Heyward were both second team All-Conference last year. MU has some problems at the four and the five, but overall they are still going to give a lot of teams match up problems.
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