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Providence Picked 4th in Coaches’ Poll

Cartwright Ball in Front

Today was Big East Media Day and the league’s coaches picked Providence to finish fourth in the upcoming season. Villanova, winners of the regular season title four years running, was chosen to finish first, followed by Seton Hall and Xavier.

Providence Seniors Kyron Cartwright and Rodney Bullock were both named Preseason 2nd Team All Big East.

News and Notes from Media Day:

The Next Four: There appears to be a consensus top four Big East teams heading into the season, but the next four become pretty murky.

Creighton was ranked fifth, with St. John’s (6), Marquette (7), and Butler (8) rounding out the top eight.

I’m not sold on Creighton. The Jays have a terrific guard combo in Marcus Foster and Khyri Thomas, but my concern was how the team finished after losing point guard Mo Watson to a knee injury last season. Creighton was 18-1 in mid-January, but closed the regular season 5-7 over their final 12 games.

And that was with center Justin Patton, who left for the NBA and was drafted in the first round.

Thomas is an emerging star and perhaps the best two-way player in the league, and Foster is a 1st Team Selection, but Syracuse transfer Kaleb Joseph will have to be the answer for them at point guard to justify this ranking.

Perhaps no team in the league is as tough a preseason call as St. John’s. Their backcourt is dynamic offensively, as sophomores Shamorie Ponds and Marcus LoVett will be as explosive a guard combo as any in the Big East this season. Chris Mullin returns four starters, has a terrific shot blocker in Tariq Owens, and welcomes transfers from Michigan State and Arizona in Marvin Clark II and Justin Simon. Clark will add depth to a so-so frontcourt, while Simon was a top 50 guard when he came out of Brewster Academy a few years ago.

Talent won’t be a question in Queens, but in his third year we’ll see if Mullin can coach a team up. The Johnnies are talented enough that if I believed more in Mullin as a coach I could see them winning a couple of games in March.

Veteran Presence: The Big East may not be a one-and-done factory like Kentucky or Duke, but what the league may lack in top 5 draft picks it makes up for in talented veterans.

Preseason Player of the Year Jalen Brunson is entering his third year starting at Villanova and played a key cog as a freshman on a national title winner.

All five members of the Preseason 1st Team are seniors: Trevon Bluiett of Xavier, Butler’s Kelan Martin, Foster, and Angel Delgado and Khadeen Carrington from Seton Hall.

The 2nd team includes two more seniors (Bullock and Cartwright), and a junior with national championship experience in Villanova junior Mikal Bridges.

The three Honorable Mention nods (JP Macura/Xavier, Thomas/Creighton, Desi Rodgriguez/Seton Hall) are all upperclassmen.

That could bode well come March.

A Change at the Top: Brunson is in the conversation for National Player of the Year in the preseason, but I would have gone with Delgado as the Preseason Big East Player of the Year.

Delgado averaged over 13 rebounds per game, a number that jumped to 14 a night in conference play. No Big East player dominated any aspect of the game like Delgado did last season. In fact, no one in the league averaged even seven boards a night last year.

Ed Cooley was the only coach in the league to vote for Seton Hall to finish first in the league.

Craig Smith II? Cooley hasn’t shied away from hyperbole since taking the Providence gig. On his first day on the job he told a downtrodden fanbase that they’d play for national championships, and he doesn’t hesitate to publicly set high expectations for his young players.

He believed Josh Fortune would have a game in which he hit 7-8 3-pointers in a game as a freshman, and last season declared that Kalif Young would one day lead the league in rebounding.

Today?

Wouldn’t that be nice? Cooley coached Smith at BC, where the burly power forward shined from the moment he stepped on the floor. Smith was a 19 point per game freshman and scored nearly 2,400 points while grabbing over 1,100 rebounds in his four years at BC.

Cooley isn’t afraid to set the bar high for his young players.

All Big East Selections: http://www.bigeast.com/news/2017/10/18/mens-basketball-villanovas-jalen-brunson-selected-preseason-player-of-the-year.aspx

Predicted League Standings: http://www.bigeast.com/news/2017/10/18/mens-basketball-villanova-viewed-as-league-favorite-again.aspx

 

3 Comments

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