for Big East:
UConn 11
St John's 23
Creighton 30
Villanova 32
Marquette 34
Providence 39
DePaul 56
Xavier 58
Seton Hall 64
Georgetown 75
Butler 88

so assuming about 20 or so 1 bid conferences, that would leave about 56 spots. Would put DePaul and Xavier right on the bubble, with Seton Hall pretty close as well...

Conference is ranked #4 and ahead of the ACC.

(10-12-2026 11:39 AM)stever20 Wrote:  so assuming about 20 or so 1 bid conferences, that would leave about 56 spots. Would put DePaul and Xavier right on the bubble, with Seton Hall pretty close as well...

Yo talking bubble already?

The entire conference in top 88 is good, but we had the entire conference in top 99 and that didn't help with NCAA bids. I think we'll see a much better pre-season performance this season. I've put down $10 each on UCONN, SJU, and Nova to win the title

(10-13-2026 10:32 PM)kayak1 Wrote:  

(10-12-2026 11:39 AM)stever20 Wrote:  so assuming about 20 or so 1 bid conferences, that would leave about 56 spots. Would put DePaul and Xavier right on the bubble, with Seton Hall pretty close as well...

Yo talking bubble already?

The entire conference in top 88 is good, but we had the entire conference in top 99 and that didn't help with NCAA bids. I think we'll see a much better pre-season performance this season. I've put down $10 each on UCONN, SJU, and Nova to win the title

Should've put 100 on UConn

On paper, 11 feels right for this team. We are banking heavily on development and Mullins being healthy. But our defense looked so good in our exhibition against Syracuse. I know Cuse has a lot of mid major guys on the roster but G Mac is a good coach and I think I saw they were projected 7th in the ACC somewhere. The offense didn't look great at times, however we didn't have Mullins and you could tell Demary was trying to force the offense a bit because the coaching staff told him they want him to do so this year.

I also think if we wanted to we could easily go 10 deep. We'll probably run a 9 man rotation with the 9 man averaging 7-8mpg (playing 5 or so most of them) but this team has real depth.

AP comes out Monday, I'm curious where we start off. My guess is 4 or 5

(10-16-2026 08:41 PM)Nameless Wrote:  But our defense looked so good in our exhibition against Syracuse. I know Cuse has a lot of mid major guys on the roster but G Mac is a good coach and I think I saw they were projected 7th in the ACC somewhere. The offense didn't look great at times, however we didn't have Mullins and you could tell Demary was trying to force the offense a bit because the coaching staff told him they want him to do so this year.

The ACC is probably top-heavy again. I think it's safe to assume their middle is worse than BE's, although because they have 18 teams people might assume the group below Duke, Louisville, UVA, and Miami is their middle class.

(10-13-2026 10:32 PM)kayak1 Wrote:  

(10-12-2026 11:39 AM)stever20 Wrote:  so assuming about 20 or so 1 bid conferences, that would leave about 56 spots. Would put DePaul and Xavier right on the bubble, with Seton Hall pretty close as well...

Yo talking bubble already?

The entire conference in top 88 is good, but we had the entire conference in top 99 and that didn't help with NCAA bids. I think we'll see a much better pre-season performance this season. I've put down $10 each on UCONN, SJU, and Nova to win the title

You know I am. Can't wait for Tourney at a glance posts to come back in Feb. Got to have some Green and Red lol....

(10-17-2026 03:46 PM)kayak1 Wrote:  

(10-16-2026 08:41 PM)Nameless Wrote:  But our defense looked so good in our exhibition against Syracuse. I know Cuse has a lot of mid major guys on the roster but G Mac is a good coach and I think I saw they were projected 7th in the ACC somewhere. The offense didn't look great at times, however we didn't have Mullins and you could tell Demary was trying to force the offense a bit because the coaching staff told him they want him to do so this year.

The ACC is probably top-heavy again. I think it's safe to assume their middle is worse than BE's, although because they have 18 teams people might assume the group below Duke, Louisville, UVA, and Miami is their middle class.

I agree. But honestly the more I think about it the more 7th seems like a stretch. I mean they're relying heavily on guys from Sienna and other low to mid majors. I like G Mac as a coach, but even Hurley went 14-18 his first year due to a lack of talent, in a league worse than the ACC. I think there will be a lot of growing pains for them this season and G Mac really starts to turn things around year 2.

(10-19-2026 07:54 PM)Nameless Wrote:  

(10-17-2026 03:46 PM)kayak1 Wrote:  

(10-16-2026 08:41 PM)Nameless Wrote:  But our defense looked so good in our exhibition against Syracuse. I know Cuse has a lot of mid major guys on the roster but G Mac is a good coach and I think I saw they were projected 7th in the ACC somewhere. The offense didn't look great at times, however we didn't have Mullins and you could tell Demary was trying to force the offense a bit because the coaching staff told him they want him to do so this year.

The ACC is probably top-heavy again. I think it's safe to assume their middle is worse than BE's, although because they have 18 teams people might assume the group below Duke, Louisville, UVA, and Miami is their middle class.

I agree. But honestly the more I think about it the more 7th seems like a stretch. I mean they're relying heavily on guys from Sienna and other low to mid majors. I like G Mac as a coach, but even Hurley went 14-18 his first year due to a lack of talent, in a league worse than the ACC. I think there will be a lot of growing pains for them this season and G Mac really starts to turn things around year 2.

so looking- they're projected in KP to be 17-15. Projected to lose an OOC game with Providence. That game could really make the decision on if they make the tourney or not.

(10-19-2026 10:34 AM)stever20 Wrote:  You know I am. Can't wait for Tourney at a glance posts to come back in Feb. Got to have some Green and Red lol....

I don't care if quality of the bubble is weaker than ever before, I'm still looking forward to following it

(10-19-2026 07:54 PM)Nameless Wrote:  I agree. But honestly the more I think about it the more 7th seems like a stretch. I mean they're relying heavily on guys from Sienna and other low to mid majors. I like G Mac as a coach, but even Hurley went 14-18 his first year due to a lack of talent, in a league worse than the ACC. I think there will be a lot of growing pains for them this season and G Mac really starts to turn things around year 2.

I hope they don't turn anything around. Syracuse needs another decade of irrelevance before I start feeling bad for them. I might have felt similarly about BC, but they've proven to be too irrelevant for me to care, so I hope things don't go south for Luke Murray.

I am working on my pre-season projections. I don’t know if I’ll ever do this again. It’s bad enough with the portal and wholesale roster turnover, but we literally have 2/3 of the Big East teams waiting for eligibility decisions. And some of these guys are major impact players who can tip a teams fortunes one way or the other. It used to be easy, but now the task is next to impossible.

I’m developing the opinion that most of these forecasts are completely useless and are nothing but click bait. I think that there are going to be a lot of surprises.

(10-22-2026 09:45 AM)Bill Marsh Wrote:  I am working on my pre-season projections. I don’t know if I’ll ever do this again. It’s bad enough with the portal and wholesale roster turnover, but we literally have 2/3 of the Big East teams waiting for eligibility decisions. And some of these guys are major impact players who can tip a teams fortunes one way or the other. It used to be easy, but now the task is next to impossible.

I’m developing the opinion that most of these forecasts are completely useless and are nothing but click bait. I think that there are going to be a lot of surprises.

I agree with this completely. The extensive roster turnover makes it especially difficult. I was thinking about my own preseason picks, and was ready to put Nova in second place. That is, until I went to the Nova/ Virginia preseason game last night. If Nova is the second best team in the league this year, then the BE is in for some major disappointment. They struggled to inbound the ball all night against Virginia's press, and the perimeter defense was non existent. Virginia was shooting wide open 3's all night, and missed plenty of wide open looks, otherwise the score would have been more lopsided. I know it's a preseason game and Virginia is good, but Nova has some major work to do, if they're going to be any kind of factor this year.

So as far as my picks go, it's back to the drawing board. UCONN at 1 is easy, and I suppose the Johnnies at 2 makes sense, except they don't rebound worth a damn. 3-11 I may just pick the names out of a hat. Probably won't be any worse than what I'll come up with figuring things out on my own.

Providence has looked good in preseason as has Creighton and Xavier.

There is so much roster turnover that we’re looking at teams which really have no track record as currently configured. How can anyone possibly make a credible prediction at this point?

(10-27-2026 11:03 AM)Bill Marsh Wrote:  There is so much roster turnover that we’re looking at teams which really have no track record as currently configured. How can anyone possibly make a credible prediction at this point?

I think a lot of the players involved- knowing their track records. and also coaching.

Georgetown getting Vince Iwuchukwu back is big. A key question is the status of DePaul transfer NJ Benson. He is not listed on the Hoya roster.

I'm puzzled.

(10-29-2026 10:16 AM)stever20 Wrote:  

(10-27-2026 11:03 AM)Bill Marsh Wrote:  There is so much roster turnover that we’re looking at teams which really have no track record as currently configured. How can anyone possibly make a credible prediction at this point?

I think a lot of the players involved- knowing their track records. and also coaching.

You know their track record? At this level?

We know the track records of transfers vs different and varying levels of competition and under different systems. Other than Marquette, who has more than 2 starters back? When programs are making wholesale changes, and in some cases starting with a blank slate, there is no continuity.

Obviously I don't want to pick against a Hall of Fame coach like Pitino, who seems to manufacture winning teams regardless of anything else. But the rest of them? Even in the case of Hurley, he’s had a lot of continuity year to year over the past 4 years. And a lot of talent as well. But this year? Demary and Mullins are back while 3 key starters are gone. They are going to have to rebuild their entire interior game. Around Reibe??? I’ll wait and see on that one.

I foresee a lot of surprises this year. Villanova appears to be the first of those on the negative side.

(11-01-2026 11:03 PM)Bill Marsh Wrote:  

(10-29-2026 10:16 AM)stever20 Wrote:  

(10-27-2026 11:03 AM)Bill Marsh Wrote:  There is so much roster turnover that we’re looking at teams which really have no track record as currently configured. How can anyone possibly make a credible prediction at this point?

I think a lot of the players involved- knowing their track records. and also coaching.

You know their track record? At this level?

We know the track records of transfers vs different and varying levels of competition and under different systems. Other than Marquette, who has more than 2 starters back? When programs are making wholesale changes, and in some cases starting with a blank slate, there is no continuity.

Obviously I don't want to pick against a Hall of Fame coach like Pitino, who seems to manufacture winning teams regardless of anything else. But the rest of them? Even in the case of Hurley, he’s had a lot of continuity year to year over the past 4 years. And a lot of talent as well. But this year? Demary and Mullins are back while 3 key starters are gone. They are going to have to rebuild their entire interior game. Around Reibe??? I’ll wait and see on that one.

I foresee a lot of surprises this year. Villanova appears to be the first of those on the negative side.

UConn dominated the preseason. Curb stomped Cuse and Purdue and beat a top 6 Michigan State team on the road with 10k people in a game that looked like a late February/ March type of atmosphere. I was high on this team coming into the season but am even higher on them after seeing their performance in the exhibition games.

Did you mean rebuilding the interior around Hines? Reibe is gone and actually injured, not sure he will even play for USC this year. Hines has looked like a monster and Giltay looks like a better backup than Reibe was last year. Khamenia has looked like the perfect Karaban replacement and Landrew and County look as good as advertised despite being freshmen. Ross seems to have taken a small step forward after performing really well down the stretch last year, Demary looks the part of the Big East PoY. I could go on. The only real question mark is Mullins' health but even without him we took down MSU on the road. UConn is a legit title contender and probably the only team in the league without real questions.

I think SJU will be fine as well, Ellis has looked really good and they have a bunch of grown men on the team. Hopeful another 3-4 teams step up this year and pretty confident some will after seeing some of these early season blowouts.

(11-01-2026 11:03 PM)Bill Marsh Wrote:  

(10-29-2026 10:16 AM)stever20 Wrote:  

(10-27-2026 11:03 AM)Bill Marsh Wrote:  There is so much roster turnover that we’re looking at teams which really have no track record as currently configured. How can anyone possibly make a credible prediction at this point?

I think a lot of the players involved- knowing their track records. and also coaching.

You know their track record? At this level?

We know the track records of transfers vs different and varying levels of competition and under different systems. Other than Marquette, who has more than 2 starters back? When programs are making wholesale changes, and in some cases starting with a blank slate, there is no continuity.

Obviously I don't want to pick against a Hall of Fame coach like Pitino, who seems to manufacture winning teams regardless of anything else. But the rest of them? Even in the case of Hurley, he’s had a lot of continuity year to year over the past 4 years. And a lot of talent as well. But this year? Demary and Mullins are back while 3 key starters are gone. They are going to have to rebuild their entire interior game. Around Reibe??? I’ll wait and see on that one.

I foresee a lot of surprises this year. Villanova appears to be the first of those on the negative side.

Reibe is gone. They replaced him with Hines and Giltay who are both better than Reibe.

In addition to Mullins and Demary they have Ross and Ball eventually. Their starters are great and they are loaded with 10 solid players, maybe 11 when Solo Ball returns.

Landrew and Junior County are great as well.