Big East 2023-2024

[SeattleJay]

ESPN has:
9. U Conn
10. MU
13. CU
18. Nova

They are not crazy ratings but it does seem like they don’t watch the BE on Fox.

[SeattleJay]

Fanta/Fox (on the other hand) has:
2. MU
4. UConn
7. CU
25. X

It’s not too surprising that Fox and ESPN lean in opposite directions. Or am I too cynical?

[Realhoops]

Fanta/Fox (on the other hand) has:
2. MU
4. UConn
7. CU
25. X

It’s not too surprising that Fox and ESPN lean in opposite directions. Or am I too cynical?

They both have MU / UConn / CU as the projected top 3. I think MU at #2 seems way high, to me. And I'm not sold that UConn is a top 5 team, either. To me, having the three projected top teams in what will be an unpredictable Big East as top 10-15 teams seems about right, and both of those are there for being super early. I feel like Creighton between 10-15 actually feels appropriate, with all we bring back but also recognizing a couple of losses and somewhat unknown replacements.

I'm honestly surprised that Fanta doesn't have Nova in that discussion.

[go_jays]

Will be interesting to see if Marquette can recreate last year when they kind of took everyone by surprise and how much losing OMax impacts their overall performance.

Also going to be interesting to see how quickly Cooley gets Georgetown on the right track. Really starting from scratch with the roster, so might not all click right away. And how will English fare in his first year with some solid pieces remaining for Providence? What about Neptune in a second year with Moore all year?

UConn lost a LOT of its core key pieces from last year. I get that Clingan will get a lot more minutes, but Sanogo, Hawkins, and Jackson is a lot to just replace.

Buckle up.

All very good insight... especially the part about Marquette being able to recreate what they did last year.

But I have to disagree with the "unknown" comment. I don't think Ashworth and Lawson are really unknowns. And while Troudt hasn't played in a D1 game, he's been training at a pretty high level. I think it's more about getting the new pieces to gel with the vets. But I don't see that as being a big problem either the core of Kalk, Baylor and Trey are back... and I think Miller got enough experience last year that I'm not worried about him at this point.

But most of all, I like our combination of leadership and experience playing in games that really matter.

But any way you look at it... it will be dog eat dog.

[Realhoops]

Will be interesting to see if Marquette can recreate last year when they kind of took everyone by surprise and how much losing OMax impacts their overall performance.

Also going to be interesting to see how quickly Cooley gets Georgetown on the right track. Really starting from scratch with the roster, so might not all click right away. And how will English fare in his first year with some solid pieces remaining for Providence? What about Neptune in a second year with Moore all year?

UConn lost a LOT of its core key pieces from last year. I get that Clingan will get a lot more minutes, but Sanogo, Hawkins, and Jackson is a lot to just replace.

Buckle up.

All very good insight... especially the part about Marquette being able to recreate what they did last year.

But I have to disagree with the "unknown" comment. I don't think Ashworth and Lawson are really unknowns. And while Troudt hasn't played in a D1 game, he's been training at a pretty high level. I think it's more about getting the new pieces to gel with the vets. But I don't see that as being a big problem either the core of Kalk, Baylor and Trey are back... and I think Miller got enough experience last year that I'm not worried about him at this point.

But most of all, I like our combination of leadership and experience playing in games that really matter.

But any way you look at it... it will be dog eat dog.

I get that Ashworth and Lawson and Traudt may not be "totally" unknown. But Ashworth and Lawson have not played BE basketball. And they haven't played in our system. There is definitely a decent amount of unknown compared to guys who are returning to our system. And whatever we think we know and believe about Traudt, he has played exactly zero minutes of division 1 basketball, let alone high major level in the Big East. So yeah, there's some unknown there.

[Django]

I say kick UCONN out for their betrayal and blasphemy by bending over to the heathen B12!

[YankeesJunkie]

I am confident that Creighton is a top 2 team in the Big East. By all the metrics they got back their three most productive starters and I am curious to see how well Kalk plays this next year at full health as while he was amazing, I have a feeling he was never at full strength last year. I will be interested to see how deep Creighton can go, gut feeling will end up being 8 players with Traudt getting run early on. What I do find optimistic about Creighton is that I think they can be a top 20 team in KenPom on both defense and offense.

[Chicagojayfan]

Will be interesting to see if Marquette can recreate last year when they kind of took everyone by surprise and how much losing OMax impacts their overall performance.

Also going to be interesting to see how quickly Cooley gets Georgetown on the right track. Really starting from scratch with the roster, so might not all click right away. And how will English fare in his first year with some solid pieces remaining for Providence? What about Neptune in a second year with Moore all year?

UConn lost a LOT of its core key pieces from last year. I get that Clingan will get a lot more minutes, but Sanogo, Hawkins, and Jackson is a lot to just replace.

Buckle up.

All very good insight... especially the part about Marquette being able to recreate what they did last year.

But I have to disagree with the "unknown" comment. I don't think Ashworth and Lawson are really unknowns. And while Troudt hasn't played in a D1 game, he's been training at a pretty high level. I think it's more about getting the new pieces to gel with the vets. But I don't see that as being a big problem either the core of Kalk, Baylor and Trey are back... and I think Miller got enough experience last year that I'm not worried about him at this point.

But most of all, I like our combination of leadership and experience playing in games that really matter.

But any way you look at it... it will be dog eat dog.

I get that Ashworth and Lawson and Traudt may not be "totally" unknown. But Ashworth and Lawson have not played BE basketball. And they haven't played in our system. There is definitely a decent amount of unknown compared to guys who are returning to our system. And whatever we think we know and believe about Traudt, he has played exactly zero minutes of division 1 basketball, let alone high major level in the Big East. So yeah, there's some unknown there.

There is always some risk when you bring in new players, but a couple of thoughts on those guys:

- Ashworth - played for 2 different coaches at Utah State and is a very mature guy. He also played pretty well when playing 3 games against San Diego St. last year (and I don't think any Creighton fan would underrate their defensive intensity)

- Lawson - had the 3rd best eFG% on Memphis last year (probably a top 25 team) and had nice games against some good teams including Texas A&M

- Traudt - he's going to have to adjust to the full season against D1 competition, but he had a RS year and we won't be asking him to be the focal point of the offense.

In fact for both Traudt and Lawson, they can be role players and get into the flow of our game. We will be asking more from Ashworth, but I feel pretty good about him fitting into our system.

If they rank us 3rd or 4th in the pre-season rankings, I say good - Mac can get back to finishing above where the team gets picked in the pre-season

[Ethanfor3]

A lot of blue kool-aid in this thread, most of it justified.

A few things that give me pause:

I think we’ll miss R2 and his leadership at the point. Generally, the kid was just a winner. He made timely plays, made the right plays and was an underrated defender.

Art, for all of his frustrating tendencies on offense, was a good, athletic defender that we will also miss at some point. In reality, there’s only one ball and if Art hadn’t pressed the issue at times to get his, then I think we’d all feel differently about him leaving.

Tagging onto the above, we are a less athletic team than we were a year ago. Less explosiveness overall as we essentially replace them with players that have different attributes. I’ll be interested to see how we defend some of the athleticism in the big east.

On the plus side:
We have Kalk back as an anchor a year older and stronger. Behind him I expect Fred to play significantly better this year with the experience he’s gained. I like the middle of our defense and the ability to score in the paint from the center position.

Ashworth I believe is a better fit for how we use kalkbrenner due to his outside shooting ability. We have, on paper, a significantly better team capable of knocking down 3’s at every position.

We get Trey back one year older and stronger. He gets better every time out. Only slightly behind Kalk, was Trey coming back. They were 1 and 2 by a wide margin with R2 a distant 3 and Art a further back #4 from an importance perspective. I expect to see more of Trey on ball and I think we’ll like the result of he and Kalk probing the free throw line extended with 3 shooters spread out to make teams pay.

What we’ve lost in athleticism, we’ve gained in length and depth. It will be interesting to see if this team plays more zone this year.

I think we have the potential to be significantly better on offense, which I think we’ll need to offset a small decline in defense.

Oh and we get one more year of Baylor and familiarity in the offense and how to play in the big east. I expect he’ll be more comfortable this year as well now that he’ll be considered a leader with Trey and Kalk. It felt like he deferred to R2 last year at times. I’m guessing there won’t be that dynamic this year.

This is definitely a top 3/4 team in the big east, but good enough to win it with good fortune. Before people lose their minds consider that Villanova will be loaded again after a short hiatus, UConn and Marquette we know about and there is Xavier and Providence nipping at our heals. It will be a tough and deep league this year and it’s only going to get stronger.

I see this as a second weekend team, but after that it’s about matchups. We’ve got the potential to make the final 4 if Mac does a great job and we stay healthy.

Go Jays!

[SeattleJay]

Wilcher decommitted from UNC and signed with SJU. Top 30 HS recruit. 6’4”

About a week ago Cam Spencer, a 43% 3 point shooter from Rutgers, signed with U Conn

BE taking from blue bloods and B10. The talent and coaching will be great this year. Maybe better than last year.