It's early, and conference play always changes things, but I think the Big East is starting to take shape... Villanova is the favorite, Xavier is the biggest threat, Butler, Providence and Georgetown will compete for bids, while everyone will beat up on St. John's and DePaul.
BIG EAST TITLE CONTENDERS
Villanova is the king, and the king stay the king. There's no reason to think Villanova will slip right now, though we haven't truly been tested yet. They're a huge favorite to win the league until proven otherwise.
Xavier looks really good. They crushed Michigan. They crushed USC. They're a very talented, physical team that has real Elite 8 potential if they stay healthy and develop. Our game at the Cintas Center may be our toughest of the season.
NCAA TOURNAMENT CONTENDERS
Butler looks like a good Butler team. They should be a tournament team, and you never know with that team's history. As long as they are healthy, I feel safe thinking they are a tournament-caliber team, but I don't think they're as good as Xavier.
Providence was a team that was going to go as far as Dunn carried them, but Bullock and Bentil have played well, and Fazekas gives them a shooter they haven't had. I was concerned after the Illinois game, but the Arizona win, even without Tarczewski, has a lot of staying power. They have 3 good RPI top 100 wins in the bank, and a possible top 25 in Arizona, without a loss.
Georgetown is hard to figure out, but I still think that team has too much talent to miss out. Maryland and Duke losses won't hurt them. Radford will, but if they take care of business, they have enough on their schedule to still get in.
THE WILD CARDS
Seton Hall will go as far as Whitehead carries them, mostly because he takes so many shots and has such a high usage percentage. That's probably not a recipe for success, since he has never been efficient. But if the light goes on, he, Delgado and Carrington is enough of a core that they could make a run at a tournament spot. Only one bad loss against Long Beach State, which I don't think is a bad team. Probably ends up between 50-75.
Creighton lost the game it was supposed to, and beat a lot of cupcakes. Completely blank slate resume, which isn't a bad thing at this stage. I don't think they have enough talent to get to the tournament, but they should be top 75.
Marquette is an extremely young team, but there is talent. The guard position is a problem, and probably too much of a problem for them to overcome, but they also have an NBA talent in Ellenson, and sometimes that's al you need. They have 2 losses, though neither is terrible, and they also have 2 decent wins. They could bet beat up in league play with their youth.
COUNT EM OUT
DePaul looked like it could be better this year, but it looks like they still are what we thought they were. Got beaten handily by the 2 solid teams it faced, and it also lost to a bad Penn State team. Looks like the 9th straight year they'll end up with at least 19 losses. I just hope they get to conference play at .500 overall or better.
St. John's is a bad team. We knew this going in, given all their losses. Hopefully they win enough to not be RPI poison.
