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Now that the pre-season is winding down and conference games are beginning, here’s my take on what we’ve learned from the early season results:

1. UConn - national champion contenders
2. Xavier - on a 4 game win streak with a good win in rivalry game over Cincinnati.
3. Creighton - hard to figure these guys out. Opened season with a 6 game win streak, now have lost 5 in a row. Have talent.
4. Marquette - nice wins over ND & Baylor. Really like the way Shaka has these guys playing. Poised to move up.
5. Butler - playing like a tournament team, 4 game win streak, big win over K State.
6. Villanova - struggled early vs tough schedule & looked like were missing Jay. More encouraging lately. Could be a factor.
7. Seton Hall - Up & down vs tough schedule, looked good in win vs Rutgers. Need to be consistent
8. St. John’s - How can you knock a team that’s 10-1? But they haven’t played anyone. Soft schedule so wait & see.
9. Providence - Rebuilding. Soft schedule. Dealing with key injuries lately. Wait & see.

Here are my picks for BE play and NCAA tournament prospects.

1 UCONN The bar has been set high, we're all expecting and rooting for a Final Four appearance. 1 seed
2 Nova They're a completely different team with Whitmore, the young guys are getting better and even Arch has shown solid improvement lately. Need to tighten up the defense, but think they'll play their way into the tournament as say a 10 seed.
3 Xavier Look good, and hopefully Miller won't allow a late season swoon like last year happen. 5 seed
4 Marquette Definitely on the upswing and wouldn't rule out them finishing higher. 7 seed
5 Creighton Huge disappointment this season. 9 seed
6 Johnnies Will be schizophrenic and undisciplined as they always are, and drive everyone crazy. But I think they land on the right side of the bubble this year as a 10 seed.
7 Butler They'll be competitive but don't have the horses to contend for the tournament this year.
8 SH Need somebody that can put the ball in the basket.
9 Providence Simply don't look good, long season in store for them
10 DePaul Will serve as roadkill for the rest of the league
11 Georgetown Only intrigue is whether they go two consecutive seasons without a league win. Hopefully Ewing has the decency to step down without it being a messy divorce.

hoops22 wrote:Here are my picks for BE play and NCAA tournament prospects.

1 UCONN The bar has been set high, we're all expecting and rooting for a Final Four appearance. 1 seed
2 Nova They're a completely different team with Whitmore, the young guys are getting better and even Arch has shown solid improvement lately. Need to tighten up the defense, but think they'll play their way into the tournament as say a 10 seed.
3 Xavier Look good, and hopefully Miller won't allow a late season swoon like last year happen. 5 seed
4 Marquette Definitely on the upswing and wouldn't rule out them finishing higher. 7 seed
5 Creighton Huge disappointment this season. 9 seed
6 Johnnies Will be schizophrenic and undisciplined as they always are, and drive everyone crazy. But I think they land on the right side of the bubble this year as a 10 seed.
7 Butler They'll be competitive but don't have the horses to contend for the tournament this year.
8 SH Need somebody that can put the ball in the basket.
9 Providence Simply don't look good, long season in store for them
10 DePaul Will serve as roadkill for the rest of the league
11 Georgetown Only intrigue is whether they go two consecutive seasons without a league win. Hopefully Ewing has the decency to step down without it being a messy divorce.

If Nova finishes 2nd I think they'd get a whole lot better than a 10 seed. Say go 15-5. They'd be 21-10. That might be able to get them even like a 6 seed and avoid that 7-10 clump.

Creighton finishing 5th could get really dicey. 11-9 lets say gets them to only 17-14. That's quite dangerous on making/missing the tourney.

You're probably right about Nova. I was thinking the bad early season losses would hurt a lot, but a strong finish would likely negate that a bit. I think the records of the teams in the middle will be helped by the bottom three being so bad. Quite honestly, i think the Hall is in for a long season too. We'll see.

I hear you guys on Nova’s potential, but the team that has impressed me the most with its potential to grow during the season is Marquette. Shaka has them playing the kind of defense that his VCU team played 10+ years ago. Their ability to create turnovers leads to easy buckets at the other end. The result is that they are 8th in the country in fast break points and 23rd in effective FG%.

Their starters are all sophomores & juniors who are in their 2nd season with Shaka, so they’ve learned his system but are still young and getting better. The first players off the bench are mostly freshman, so also young and growing. I think this team will improve as the season moves forward.

In Nova’s favor is that they seem to have retained the hallmark of the Jay Wright teams, i.e. doing the little things well. For example, they are #3 in the country in FT%. Free throws win championships.

I guess the big question is whether anyone will be able to step up & challenge UConn.

UConn is good. They might be really good, but I’m not going to crown them yet. I like what I’ve seen out of Xavier and Marquette. And if Creighton gets healthy, we saw them beat Arkansas and take Arizona and Texas to the wire so they are definitely near the top of the league. And nova is a new team with Whitmore playing.

Conference season is going to be a blast. Except for us and GTown.

DemonBaby wrote:UConn is good. They might be really good, but I’m not going to crown them yet. I like what I’ve seen out of Xavier and Marquette. And if Creighton gets healthy, we saw them beat Arkansas and take Arizona and Texas to the wire so they are definitely near the top of the league. And nova is a new team with Whitmore playing.

Conference season is going to be a blast. Except for us and GTown.

Of course we’re not crowning anyone yet. As it’s still early, you might not have seen UConn play yet. When you see them, they’re really impressive. I agree with you about Xavier, Creighton, and Marquette, but they all still have a way to go yet. It’s not only that UConn is undefeated, but none of their games have been closer than 10 points. They beat Alabama by 15, who just knocked off #1 Houston. They beat Iowa State by 18, a team ranked in the top 30 in both polls. They go 9 deep and don’t miss a beat when players come in off the bench. I know that I didn’t expect this from them after all that they lost from last year. But players have developed, their transfers have stepped right in, and their 7’2” freshman center is the real deal.

Butler is about to get healthy. Jalen Thomas (transfer big) and Ali Ali (expected to be the leading scorer going into the season) practiced for the first time this season in the past couple days. I doubt we'll see either much if at all for UConn this weekend, but expect both to play and at least one to start by the beginning of the year.

I feel like other than UConn and Xavier, there's total parity in the BE going into the season. No order of finish would surprise me, short of Georgetown not finishing last.

Schoops wrote:Butler is about to get healthy. Jalen Thomas (transfer big) and Ali Ali (expected to be the leading scorer going into the season) practiced for the first time this season in the past couple days. I doubt we'll see either much if at all for UConn this weekend, but expect both to play and at least one to start by the beginning of the year.

I feel like other than UConn and Xavier, there's total parity in the BE going into the season. No order of finish would surprise me, short of Georgetown not finishing last.

Great to hear that Butler’s adding some depth and size. As well as they’ve been playing, that will only make them better!