Breaking Down Big East Basketball

Who's on top?

It's pretty well understood around the conference that it can be broken down into three categories: generic teams, tournament teams and national contenders.  This is the first year that all 16 teams will be invited to Madison Square Garden for the Big East Championship with ranks 9-16 playing on Tuesday in 2 sets of double-headers.

The Generic Teams

Rutgers and South Florida are annual bottom-feeders in the Big East but neither team are pushovers.  Rutgers (16) is potentially the second hardest place to play behind Notre Dame and that's only because their product isn't as good.  That place rocks when the Knights are on defense.  Rutgers extends the game, makes you slow down and look for a shot and it's not uncommon to win with a low 60s score.  Unfortunately they usually have a score in the 40s or 50s.

South Florida (15) is the red-headed step child of the conference.  Brought in because of the football team, this basketball squad is trying to play catch up.  They aren't awful, but they just aren't as talented as the big boys.  Two of their three wins came against Rutgers last year and that's the only reason I have them ranked above Rutgers this year.

The DePaul Blue Demons (14) are very young.  Only two seniors and one junior lead this young squad against a veteran competition.  In a couple years this team might finally get a bye in the Big East tournament, but I feel like it will struggle to the tune of four or five wins in the conference this season.

St. John's (13) is in the same boat as DePaul with only three upperclassmen, but they also only have one freshman.  With a team full of sophomores we should see improvement to the tune of around six conference wins this season.  This is a traditional powerhouse that is trying to rebuild its huge fall in the last ten years.  I predict that they'll be back in the top five with UConn and Georgetown again in a few more years.

Cincinatti (12) is going to have a slight fall this season.  The Bearcats lost four of their top five scorers last year and now Deonta Vaughn will have to run that team like Kobe Bryant to stay afloat.  They'll make some noise later in the season but I don't see them making a run for a title any time soon.

Seton Hall (11) is talented and slightly more veteran than some of these other teams, but they've been forced to hold walk-on tryouts this November.  They don't have the depth to beat the better teams but should have the talent to get seven wins.

Providence (10) was a disappointment last year and I'm not sure they'll get much better this year.  The team didn't have the cohesiveness that a good Big East team needs to have and unless they found something this off-season, I don't see this year being any better for Friar fans.

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