The Way-Too-Early 2017-18 Big East Hoops Prediction Thread

[FriarJ]

I think it's a 4 team race and it should be fun.

Villanova, lose a lot but pickup some key additions and a great class, plus they are still Nova
Xavier, Return almost everyone and a great class
SHU, return almost everyone and the top players are seniors.
PC, returns almost everyone and have a great class.

[xavierfano8]

Now that the dust has settled minus Waters and Bowen I'll give it a shot, assuming neither ends up in the Big East.

1. Villanova
2. Xavier
3. Seton Hall
4. Providence
5. Butler
6. St. Johns
7. Marquette
8. Creighton
9. Depaul
10. Georgetown

The middle of the league is going to be a toss up again. I think it'll be within a couple games of getting a top 4 seed or playing on Wednesday in the Big East Tournament (like Xavier did this past year).

First Team (This list may be even harder, big time players coming back this year)
J. Brunson (POY)
T. Bluiett
S. Ponds
K. Cartwright
A. Delgado
K. Martin

[scoscox]

It was just an example of teams that didn't dominate their conference and went on to win a Natty, just saying Xavier or a few others (in our league) have that chance. We are going to beat each other up and expose ourselves in conference to get stronger for the NCAA's. Sorry if this wasn't relayed properly the first time. We'll see how Goodin responds when others know he is the guy and have a chance to prepare. Not saying he won't, but we'll see.

Fair enough i'm just saying Quentin already played the entire conference season last year. He started like 20 games. Teams had plenty of time to adjust to him. Also, he'll still have JP and Trevon to pass to so he's not going to be expected to be "the guy".

That first team looks good. I think Cartwright would be the odd man out.

[BEXU]

"We'll see how Goodin responds when others know he is the guy and have a chance to prepare. Not saying he won't, but we'll see."

You do realize his "backup" is the 28th best player in all the land and a Top 5 PG. I think Sumner and Christon were rated lower. I think Scruggs will have a huge impact with this team, and, yes, Mack will play him. We'll see how the minutes shake out after the OOC.
Plus, the kid may come in as the best defender on the team, Mack will love that. So the BE needs to get ready for Paul Scruggs.

[Irishdawg]

"We'll see how Goodin responds when others know he is the guy and have a chance to prepare. Not saying he won't, but we'll see."

You do realize his "backup" is the 28th best player in all the land and a Top 5 PG. I think Sumner and Christon were rated lower. I think Scruggs will have a huge impact with this team, and, yes, Mack will play him. We'll see how the minutes shake out after the OOC.
Plus, the kid may come in as the best defender on the team, Mack will love that. So the BE needs to get ready for Paul Scruggs.

Christon basically had the same ranking as Scruggs coming out of high school, as both were ranked in the top 30 by 2 out of 3 recruiting services (Scout, ESPN, Rivals). Sumner was rated lower, but having a year to get ready helped him a lot. Scruggs is pretty similar to Christon offensively too in that he likes to play bully ball and draw fouls for his offensive production. We'll see the kind of impact he has next season, but he's definitely going to be a stud at some point, but he'll need to improve his jump shot and ability to create for his teammates.

[Demon22]

Not gonna make a specific prediction, but I'll just say this...

This is DePaul's deepest, most well-rounded, most talented roster they've had in at least 10 years.

[Xavier4036]

They did great in the NCAA without the advanced scouting, the round robin schedule exposes all warts.

Some comments on here are head-scratchers... like this one.

Did anyone ever say after Villanova's national championship run, they did great in the tournament this year without the advanced scouting!

Why say that after Xavier's Elite 8 run? For the comment to even be relevant, Xavier must have had the chance to do "advanced scouting" for Maryland, Florida State and Arizona, but those schools didn't have the chance to do the same "advanced scouting" of Xavier? Whatever inherent challenges due to the structure of the tournament one team faces, the opponent will face similar.

Not a big deal, but just a weird comment to make. I've never heard anyone diminish a team's success in the NCAA because the other team wasn't able to do "advanced scouting"

[Xavier4036]

It was just an example of teams that didn't dominate their conference and went on to win a Natty, just saying Xavier or a few others (in our league) have that chance. We are going to beat each other up and expose ourselves in conference to get stronger for the NCAA's. Sorry if this wasn't relayed properly the first time. We'll see how Goodin responds when others know he is the guy and have a chance to prepare. Not saying he won't, but we'll see.

Fair enough i'm just saying Quentin already played the entire conference season last year. He started like 20 games. Teams had plenty of time to adjust to him. Also, he'll still have JP and Trevon to pass to so he's not going to be expected to be "the guy".

That first team looks good. I think Cartwright would be the odd man out.

Exactly. I'm more interested to seeing how Goodin responds when we actually have someone on the roster other than him who can play point guard. He was a true freshmen PG who got maybe 5-6 mins per game before Sumner got hurt; after Sumner's second injury, was the only PG on the roster and leads Xavier to an Elite 8.

Not really worried how he is going to respond to teams "having a chance to prepare" (since they also had this chance last season) and he'll have Paul Scruggs as a backup.

[BigmanU]

They did great in the NCAA without the advanced scouting, the round robin schedule exposes all warts.

Some comments on here are head-scratchers... like this one.

Did anyone ever say after Villanova's national championship run, they did great in the tournament this year without the advanced scouting!

Why say that after Xavier's Elite 8 run? For the comment to even be relevant, Xavier must have had the chance to do "advanced scouting" for Maryland, Florida State and Arizona, but those schools didn't have the chance to do the same "advanced scouting" of Xavier? Whatever inherent challenges due to the structure of the tournament one team faces, the opponent will face similar.

Not a big deal, but just a weird comment to make. I've never heard anyone diminish a team's success in the NCAA because the other team wasn't able to do "advanced scouting"

The BEast coaches game planned (tendencies etc.) in the off season for X's All American PG to lead the team. Coaching adjustments were made on the fly mid season and they will prepare differently for him with an offseason of game tape. I'm not saying Goodin can't do it, but we shall see. Can you find the quote were Xavier's Elite 8 run was belittled? I was just stating the conference season and the NCAA's are to different animals from a preparation standpoint. This is a discussion about the BEast predictions correct?

[BEXU]

Updated:

http://www.foxsports.com/college-basket ... ons-052517