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If I had to name a sleeper this year- I'd have to say Xavier...

I love their OOC schedule- think if they can get 9-9 in conference play, they can make the tourney with the OOC schedule(not all the schools can say that).

If I had to say a deeper sleeper- I'd say the Hall. I don't think they get into the tourney(their OOC schedule is awful)- but I think they could get 8-9 conference wins.

who does everyone else think are the sleepers to watch out for this year?

Providence or Butler.

Providence: Even though they have had some bad luck regarding injuries and such, they still have some very talented players. They always seem to be able to score. I think they are a dangerous team that many will overlook and lose to unexpectedly. Cooley has taken them from a bottom feeder to a NCAA bubble team.

Butler: Too much was made of them losing their Head Coach. This is a very good PROGRAM. A program is much more than just a coach. Stevens wasn't Boeheim, Calhoun, or Pitino. Butler will be fine. They always seem to perform for their fans. They know their expectations and though they may not have as many sexy Top100 type guys, they usually have great chemistry and embrace that underdog role.

Depaul. Not saying they're going to be NCAA but the senior years of Young and Melvin plus Garrett jr makes me confident they won't be last and could get into the NIT perhaps win a few games.

Lavinwood wrote:Providence or Butler.

Providence: Even though they have had some bad luck regarding injuries and such, they still have some very talented players. They always seem to be able to score. I think they are a dangerous team that many will overlook and lose to unexpectedly. Cooley has taken them from a bottom feeder to a NCAA bubble team.

Butler: Too much was made of them losing their Head Coach. This is a very good PROGRAM. A program is much more than just a coach. Stevens wasn't Boeheim, Calhoun, or Pitino. Butler will be fine. They always seem to perform for their fans. They know their expectations and though they may not have as many sexy Top100 type guys, they usually have great chemistry and embrace that underdog role.

Butler I think many would have been ok with- except for the injury they had to Roosevelt Jones. Think more are concerned about his loss than losing Stevens...

MUBoxer wrote:Depaul. Not saying they're going to be NCAA but the senior years of Young and Melvin plus Garrett jr makes me confident they won't be last and could get into the NIT perhaps win a few games.

I agree. DePaul will make drastic gains this year, they lost a lot of close games last year and their roster this year is a lot better than last years.

MUBoxer wrote:Depaul. Not saying they're going to be NCAA but the senior years of Young and Melvin plus Garrett jr makes me confident they won't be last and could get into the NIT perhaps win a few games.

yeah, I have Depaul at 9 this year over Butler. Could see winning 4-5 games in conference. NIT I doubt because of the format they have now where it's not popular teams but more on merit(along with the regular season conference champs from the smaller conferences that lose in their conference tournies). I could see DePaul in the CBI i think it is.

Jones is a very good player, and his loss hurts a lot, but I think many people are overstating the impact his loss has on the offense. They see he is their leading returning scorer and think its a big blow to the offense. Jones really isn't a very efficient scorer or offensive player though. I expect giving minutes to freshman Elijah Brown instead may actually improve the offense. The defensive end is where Butler is really going to miss Jones though. It will be interesting to see how they respond defensively without him.

Butler of the 3 new teams is the one I'm least sure of this year. 2 years ago they don't make the tourney out of the Horizon, then last year, they were 2-5 vs the NCAA teams in the A10 with 3 not all that close. Against the clear top 2 of SLU and VCU- 0-4 with 3 pretty bad losses-2 ugly road losses. Now, lost their coach and a key player.

If Providence can get Dunn healthy and get the freshman on the right track, I think they are an NCAA team.

ArmyVet wrote:If Providence can get Dunn healthy and get the freshman on the right track, I think they are an NCAA team.

I agree, although I do think they have a pretty thin margin of error this season for NCAA spot. I think they have all the markings of being one of those team that is in that last 8 in/first 8 out grouping....