It’s early (okay, way too early) to have any true sense of what teams might emerge in 2013-14, but that doesn’t stop national publications from coming out with top 25 lists for next season. How freshmen might integrate themselves, transfers transition to their new teams, or which players will make the leap next year won’t be determined for quite a while, but early top 25 rankings and All American lists sustain college basketball junkies a month after the season has ended.

What’s become clear is that few national writers expect much of the Big East next season.

Nearly all top 25 rankings include Marquette. After Buzz Williams’s group tied for the regular season title last year, despite losing two of the Big East’s best in Darius Johnson-Odom and Jae Crowder, few would question what Williams can do while returning a majority of his core (the early departure of leading scorer Vander Blue hurts, but is offset by a terrific recruiting class and solid core of vets) next year.

McDermott shot nearly 50% from 3 last year

Beyond Marquette, there’s little love for the new Big East.

Georgetown, St. John’s and Butler are viewed as borderline top 25 teams, and then there’s Creighton who find themselves in some, but certainly not all, rankings for 2013-14.

What Creighton does have is a returning All American who decided to come back for what could be a historic senior season.

With Georgetown’s Otto Porter gone to the NBA, Providence’s Bryce Cotton is the only returning 1st Team All Big East player next season, but this newest iteration of the Big East’s star power, from either a team or individual perspective, will come in the form of Doug McDermott.

The wildly-efficient McDermott was the nation’s second leading scorer a season ago, one so proficient that he’s been named 1st Team AP All American in each of the past two seasons. As ESPN’s Eamonn Brennan points out, if McDermott earns a third nod he’ll be just the sixth player in the past 40 years to do so. The others? Patrick Ewing, Wayman Tisdale, Ralph Sampson, David Thompson and Bill Walton.

McDermott’s story is an interesting one. He was high school teammates with Harrison Barnes, then ranked the #1 recruit in the country, at Ames High School in Iowa and he’d committed to Northern Iowa before de-committing after his father left his post as an assistant at Iowa State to take over at Creighton.

Three years later he holds a variety of records, breaking the Missouri Valley Conference mark for points by a freshman, while ranking in the top three in scoring nationally as both a sophomore and junior – seasons in which Creighton combined to win 57 games.

The Big East may not have any teams in the preseason top 10 next fall, but in McDermott the league has the most decorated player returning to college basketball next season.

From Amanda Milkovits of the Providence Journal:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Providence College basketball player and his ex-girlfriend were arrested after a violent argument in his dorm room on Friday.

LaDontae Henton, 21, was charged with domestic simple assault and vandalism, after Kristin Smith, 20, told Providence police that he threw her on the floor and smashed her cell phone. Smith is accused of smashing Henton’s TV; she is charged with domestic vandalism.

Both pleaded not guilty during an arraignment.

We’ll continue to provide updates on this story as they become available.

It should come as no surprise that Georgetown forward Otto Porter is off to the NBA. The Big East’s Player of the Year and AP runner-up for National Player of the Year is almost certainly a lock for the top 10 next season and could find his way into the top 5 overall selections after averaging over 16 points and seven rebounds as a sophomore.

The bigger surprise was Marquette junior Vander Blue declaring himself eligible for the draft. After two seasons in which his numbers were very similar to recruiting classmate, and former Friar, Gerard Coleman, Blue had somewhat of a breakout junior season in making 2nd Team All Big East. With a terrific recruiting class on the way, Blue and a trio of very good big men in Davante Gardner, Chris Otule and Jamil Wilson, it looked as though Marquette would be the early favorite to win the Big East next season.

While the loss of Blue will hurt, Buzz Williams has been outstanding in replacing players on a yearly basis, and he still has a group that should compete for the Big East title next season.

What does this mean for Providence? The departure of Porter, combined with conference realignment, leaves Bryce Cotton has the only 1st Team All Big East performer set to return to the conference next season. As I noted here last week, Blue was the only second teamer returning, leaving just Cotton and Villanova’s JayVaughn Pinkston remaining as members of the Big East first through third teams who will play in the Big East next year.

Aside from Providence, Marquette was the only other school in the conference who had an all-conference performer and an honorable mention player set to return next year.  Now, only the Friars can make that claim heading into next season, as Kadeem Batts was named Honorable Mention last season along with St. John’s forward JaKarr Sampson, Seton Hall scorer Fuquan Edwin and Marquette’s Davante Gardner.