College Basketball Preview - Big East Conference

OUTLOOK: The Big East Conference makes and the rest of the basketball world takes should be the theme for this league as it enters the 2009-10 campaign. Last season, the Big East sent both Connecticut and Villanova to the Final Four in Detroit and although neither program brought home the trophy, it was still a strong sign that college basketball is more than just alive and well in the region. Another indication that the Big East has the makings of a basketball superpower is that, of the top 14 picks in the latest NBA Draft, four came from the league. Overall, the conference was drained of nine top performers in the two rounds of the event, which is both good and bad for this year's version of Big East basketball.

With Scottie Reynolds deciding to return to Villanova instead of following through with his dream of becoming an NBA player, the Wildcats are destined to again be a force in the league standings. However, a team does not always need a superstar in order to succeed and triumph and the West Virginia Mountaineers aim to prove that fact this year as they are the favorite to come out on top once the smoke clears in early March. According to the first set of rankings from the Associated Press, Villanova checks in at number five and WVU is three spots behind, but according to the media and coaches in the Big East, either one of these two squads could take their place on the mantle. UConn, which played an instant classic against Syracuse in a six-overtime game last March 12th, an exhausting affair that eventually resulted in a 127-117 decision that sent the Orange to the second round of the Big East Tournament, is always a contender in this league no matter how many times the Huskies are counted out. Odds are Syracuse and head coach Jim Boeheim are destined to be in the chase again in 2009-10, but having lost many key ingredients the Orange may have to settle for second-tier seating.

Louisville is a curious case because, not only has the team lost a couple of crucial components, it will also have to deal with head coach Rick Pitino's issues off the court and outside of the arena should they continue to draw attention. Nevertheless, the Cardinals still have the talent to compete regardless of whatever storm might be swirling around Pitino. A team that always seems to be in the hunt, Georgetown, should shake things up here and there, as will Notre Dame with Preseason Player of the Year Luke Harangody, but rarely has a team in the Big East been able to reach the pinnacle of success without a complementary cast of players.

That said, the second half of the massive league doesn't scare many predictors, although Cincinnati and Pittsburgh could have moments of brilliance from time to time, it looks as though the status quo is in effect in the Big East.

CONFERENCE CHAMPION: West Virginia

PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH: 1. West Virginia; 2. Villanova; 3. Connecticut; 4. Louisville; 5. Georgetown; 6. Syracuse; 7. Notre Dame; 8. Cincinnati; 9. Pittsburgh; 10. Seton Hall; 11. St. John's; 12. Marquette; 13. Providence; 14. Rutgers; 15. South Florida; 16. DePaul

TEAM BY TEAM ANALYSIS:

WEST VIRGINIA: The Mountaineers lost one of their scoring and spiritual leaders in Alex Ruoff (15.7 ppg), and yet many still believe that West Virginia is the team to beat in the Big East this season. Some of that confidence in the team from Morgantown might be because of the fiery Bob Huggins who is gradually getting himself reacquainted with the community where he himself played so many years ago. Coach Huggins and the Mountaineers will be feeding off the fact that last season they were one of the best in the nation in scoring margin with a plus 10.2 ppg, ranking them 17th. However, the team still finished just 23-12 and was 10-8 (tied for seventh) in the Big East. The squad made a little noise with two wins in the conference tournament and then earned an invitation to the NCAA Tournament, but right away was turned away by Dayton in a 68-60 final in Minneapolis. Even though the roster shows just two seniors entering the 2009-10 campaign, one of them is Da'Sean Butler who led the group in scoring a year ago with his 17.1 ppg. A starter in all but one of the team's 35 games, Butler blurred the lines between being an inside/outside player as he cleared close to six rebounds per contest and also let fly with 177 three-point shots, knocking down 35 percent of them. A member of the Big East All-Rookie Team last season, Devin Ebanks is back to show that his first year with the Mountaineers was no fluke. Ebanks powered his way into the starting lineup by averaging 10.5 ppg and leading the program with his 7.8 rpg. But more than that, the forward also accounted for 93 assists, making him one of the more well-rounded players on the roster. In conference games, Ebanks elevated his numbers to 11.1 ppg and 8.2 rpg, taking the challenge of the big games head on. While he wasn't quite as successful as Ebanks, Darryl Bryant was another first-year player in 2008-09 who was a substantial part of WVU's success. Bryant was responsible for 9.8 ppg and handed out 96 assists for the group. However, there are a couple of issues that Bryant must tend to, the first being his mere 32.9 percent shooting from the floor versus the rest of the Big East. In addition to getting back Joe Mazzulla from a shoulder injury, the Mountaineers will also counter the loss of Ruoff with the addition of transfer Casey Mitchell, the National Junior College Player of the Year.

VILLANOVA: Now entering his ninth season on the Main Line outside of Philadelphia, head coach Jay Wright has tasted success and is anxious to consume even more with a core group of players that could easily take him and Villanova to new heights. Although, that could be a very tough proposition given that the team made it to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight year last season and rolled all the way to the Final Four before being bounced out of contention by eventual champion North Carolina (83-69). At 30-8, the Wildcats had one of their most successful seasons ever, yet the squad still finished only fourth in the league standings at 13-5 as they threw in a couple of clunkers along the way. For a team that averaged almost 80 ppg in league action, Villanova was held to just 54 points by Georgetown in one game and 55 points by Louisville in another. Then again, the 'Cats taught both Syracuse and Marquette a lesson or two in the middle of February with scoring binges of 102 points versus both, so obviously this team, like so many others, can experience manic highs and depressing lows during a basketball season. Coach Wright will again have at his disposal senior guard Scottie Reynolds who, on more than one occasion, tossed around the idea of leaving the program early for the NBA, but then realized that he could make himself more marketable by remaining at Villanova and trying his hand at bringing the program another national title. A starter in all but one game a season ago, Reynolds was second on the team with his 15.2 ppg, shooting 40 percent from the field and 34.9 percent beyond the arc. He continued to be a player who forced a lot of the action, and for that he was rewarded with 205 trips to the free-throw line where he sank 81.5 percent of his opportunities. More than just a shooter, Reynolds also led the program with his 128 assists and 59 steals, giving it his all at both ends of the floor. Corey Fisher and Corey Stokes were crucial reserves who contributed 10.8 and 9.3 ppg, respectively. In Fisher the Wildcats have another facilitator who handed out 107 assists, and in Stokes the squad has a three-point bomber after he shot 41.8 percent beyond the arc for the season and an even better 42.7 percent in league contests. Other performers who bring back some starting experience are Reggie Redding (7.1 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 116 assists) and Antonio Pena (5.1 ppg, 4.2 rpg). A former McDonald's All-American and Parade All-American, Duke transfer Taylor King figures to be a major piece to the 'Nova puzzle this season as well as he slides into the frontcourt after sitting out last season.

CONNECTICUT: Already a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, head coach Jim Calhoun has seen it all since he took over the UConn program back in 1986-87 and aside from turning in championship performances in both 1999 and 2004, the Huskies had their best postseason run last season. The team finished 31-5 overall and was tied for second in the Big East with 15 wins in 18 opportunities and even though the squad made an early exit from the conference tournament, UConn still worked its way into the NCAA Tournament and made it to the Final Four before being dismissed by Michigan State in an 82-73 setback. Coach Calhoun, who leads all active coaches with an astounding 1,147 games under his belt since beginning with Northeastern back in 1972-73, has some work cut out for himself as he tries to find a way to replace A.J. Price, Jeff Adrien, Hasheem Thabeet and Craig Austrie. All four played a significant part in the team's success the last few seasons, but now the program will be turned over to Jerome Dyson, Kemba Walker and Stanley Robinson, the only ones on the current roster who started at all in 2008-09. In the case of Walker, while he started just two outings for the Huskies, he still responded by putting up 8.9 ppg and 3.5 rpg, while handing out 104 assists which was second only to Price. As one of the top scoring teams in the nation with 78.3 ppg a year ago, the Huskies could afford to be a bit more physical and take chances, seeing as how Thabeet always seemed to be lurking in the paint and waiting for opponents to make the mistake of thinking they could actually drive to the rim. But this season the squad doesn't have that same sort of force ready to pounce, which means the entire group will have to tighten up and give opponents all they can handle. Standing 7-1, junior center Charles Okwandu could fill a void as an intimidator, but with his experience level he still has a lot of growing ahead of him and the same goes for senior center Jonathan Mandeldove (6-11) after averaging a mere 2.3 minutes per outing. At 6-10, newcomer Ater Majok will be available at the end of the fall semester and figures to be a key ingredient in the frontcourt, while freshmen Alex Oriakhi and Jamal Coombs-McDaniel will take their respective shots at possibly taking over a starting position at one of the forward positions as well.

LOUISVILLE: As one of the more successful coaches in the college ranks these days, Rick Pitino is acutely aware of what it takes to win games in a tight league like the Big East. Two years ago the coach was worried about his team having to go to an 18-game conference schedule, but it has worked out just fine for the Cardinals because they've won 30 of 36 league bouts in that time frame, finishing in a tie for second place in 2007-08 and placing first in the conference last year with a 16-2 mark. For the third year in a row, the Cards made their way to the NCAA Tournament and for the second straight season the squad landed in the Elite Eight before being bounced out of contention. Perhaps most impressive about last year's run was an embarrassing 103-64 drubbing of Arizona during the Regional Semifinals in Indianapolis. However, with success comes defection and that's what happened with starting forwards Terrence Williams and Earl Clark, both of whom were NBA draft picks. Nevertheless, Pitino has not been left with an empty roster by any means because senior guards Jerry Smith and Edgar Sosa are back for another go. Even though Smith and Sosa are not big-time scoring threats, averaging just 7.8 and 7.3 ppg, respectively last season, they are the sort of players who can direct and lead a team on the floor and that's what Pitino wants from his players. Smith has the ability to shoot from behind the three-point line (.412), and Sosa (88 assists) will have to take over the facilitator role from Clark and Williams who combined to hand out more than 300 assists last year. Sophomore forward Samardo Samuels turned out to be a bruiser on the inside as he led the program in free-throw line appearances (110-of-165) and was also among the team leaders with 49 blocked shots, stats that earned him a spot on the All- Big East Rookie Team. Samuels (11.8 ppg) shot the ball well from the field (.578) overall and was even better in Big East action (.613), but at the same time his free-throw accuracy dipped to only 61.2 percent in league play and that has to be a concern for coach Pitino. For a program that always seems to be on the cusp of greatness, shooting just 64.2 percent at the charity stripe (291st in the nation last year) is simply not good enough.

GEORGETOWN: Early in the 2008-09 campaign, the Hoyas had the rest of the nation believing that they could actually be a factor in the Big East and eventually in the NCAA Tournament. As it turned out, head coach John Thompson III had pulled the wool over all of our eyes and the team limped off with a record of 16-15 and was tied for 12th in the league standings at 7-11. Granted, the Hoyas did make it to a postseason tournament for the fifth time in as many seasons under Thompson, but the squad was one and done with a 74-72 loss to Baylor in the NIT. The good news for Georgetown this season is that the squad lost just one significant player in DaJuan Summers who averaged 13.6 points and 4.1 rebounds per contest last year. Even though Jessie Sapp was also a starter in 22 of 31 games, his 6.5 ppg on 37.4 percent shooting from the floor is not going to be missed by any means. Now a sophomore, center Greg Monroe came on with a burst as he was named the Big East Conference Freshman of the Year after putting up 12.7 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. More importantly, Monroe was far enough along that he was able to start all 18 conference games for the Hoyas and boosted his numbers slightly (12.9 ppg and 7.2 rpg), so there is even more promise for the big man as he hits the court for another year with the program. Junior guard Chris Wright is poised to return as GU's floor director after handing out a team-best 117 assists as he started all 31 games. But more than just a facilitator, Wright also made himself into a viable offensive threat by shooting 48.2 percent from the floor for his 12.5 ppg and that means that defenses can not take him lightly no matter what he does. Joining Monroe and Wright as a returning starter is Austin Freeman who was credited with 11.4 ppg on 48.2 percent shooting from the floor, although his numbers dropped a bit in league action. One of the areas in which the Hoyas need to clean up is in the turnover department, after averaging almost 15 miscues per game a season ago. Fewer mistakes will mean more scoring opportunities for this bunch and they'll need as many of those as they can get.

SYRACUSE: Needing one more victory to become just the eighth coach in NCAA history to log 800 for his career, Jim Boeheim has no reason to believe he won't have that taken care of within the first week of play. However, while it was still just an exhibition outing, on November 3rd the Orange were stunned by tiny LeMoyne, a opponent from across town who posted an 82-79 win in the Carrier Dome. Last season the Orange, which finished 28-10 overall and 11-7 in Big East play, began the regular season by crushing LeMoyne (85-51) in the CBE Classic, so hopefully this is not a harbinger of things to come for the program in 2009-10. A mainstay with Syracuse since 1976, Boeheim has to deal with a huge drop-off in talent after last season. The squad is no longer led by Jonny Flynn, and Eric Devendorf and Paul Harris are also gone -- a trio of players who collectively averaged in the neighborhood of 45 ppg. More importantly, in Flynn the Orange had a fearless leader who was prepared to do whatever it took to win, while Devendorf brought the swagger and confidence of someone who could play poorly for the majority of a game but then turn around and make a play that puts Syracuse on the right track. The cupboard isn't completely bare this season, but it certainly isn't filled with the kind of quality talent that is ready to step in and make the Orange a force in the Big East again. The squad will lean heavily on Andy Rautins, who shuttled in and out of the starting lineup a season ago and is the top returning scorer with his 10.5 ppg. He is also the top returning player in terms of assists (112) and steals (52). Hopefully during the off months he worked on his shot selection because this team will not play well if he shoots 38 percent from the field again. Arinze Onuaku, the player with the most starting experience, will anchor the middle of the floor for the Orange, settling into the paint to handle most of the hard-knock action. Onuaku was second on the team in blocked shots a year ago with 53 and also second in rebounding (7.3 rpg). As someone who shot an impressive 66.7 percent from the floor, few in the Big East could do better than Onuaku, but with the good comes the bad in this case because the junior forward also made a miserable 29.8 percent of his free-throw tries. Honestly, in this day and age, a player needs to practice to just be that bad at the line, so hopefully someone on the coaching staff has made it his goal to elevate Onuaku in that area. Throw Rick Jackson (8.3 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 60 blocks) into the mix and the Orange have a decent start in the frontcourt, but that is just a small faction of what a winning basketball team is all about.

NOTRE DAME: Even though the Fighting Irish are a bit further down on the list when it comes to preseason predictions, there is still plenty to get excited about in South Bend. Take senior forward Luke Harangody, a player who at one point wasn't sure where he fit in with the Irish on the hardwood, and now he has been named the Preseason Big East Player of the Year by the media for the second year in a row. To show just how rare a feat that is, Harangody is just the second player ever in the conference to be named the Preseason Player of the Year more than once, the other being Georgetown standout Patrick Ewing who earned the vote three straight years in the early 1980's. Although he failed to live up to lofty expectations last season, after winning Big East Player of the Year honors as a sophomore, Harangody still made the cut for the All- Conference First Team as he averaged 25.2 ppg and 12.8 rpg in league outings, numbers that paced every player in the conference. Harangody has been exceptionally dominant versus the rest of the conference and, should he be able to average 20.6 points and 9.0 rebounds per game over the course of 18 Big East contests, he will end his career as the all-time leader in both categories. But Notre Dame is more than just Harangody, it has to be if this squad is going to make some noise this season. Head coach Mike Brey, who guided the team to a 21-15 record overall last season but had the squad coming in tied for 10th in the conference at a mere 8-10, has lost a trio of seniors from the roster, but is hoping to get some support from other sources in order to take some of the pressure off Harangody. One of those players is Mississippi State transfer Ben Hansbrough, the brother of former North Carolina standout Tyler Hansbrough. Ben had to sit out last season, but prior to that he showed promise by being named to the SEC All-Freshman Team while posting almost nine points per contest. Purdue transfer Scott Martin was also supposed to bring some relief after sitting out last season, but it was announced at the beginning of October that he is now slated to miss all of 2009-10 with a torn ACL. Losing three-point threat Kyle McAlarney, after he made 42.3 percent of his triples a year ago, will be a tough task especially since he and the departed Ryan Ayers combined for 228 three-point baskets. Hopefully Tory Jackson (10.6 ppg) can fill some of the void, but likely not enough to lift the Irish to its former glory.

CINCINNATI: In each of his three seasons with the Bearcats, head coach Mick Cronin has managed to exceed the previous year's win total, going from 11 in his first year, to 13 in 2007-08, and then 18 last season, gradually moving up in the Big East Conference standings at the same time. Although the team was 18-14 last season, 8-10 in conference and tied for ninth in the standings, Cincinnati failed to get an invite to one of the many postseason tournaments, something that might give the squad additional incentive to get it right this year. Working in coach Cronin's favor is having all-conference guard Deonta Vaughn back in the picture after posting a team-leading 15.3 ppg and handing out almost five assists per contest. Although he shot just 33.8 percent from three-point range as a junior, his modest performance on the perimeter did not dissuade Vaughn from launching 240 of his 399 field goal attempts from beyond the arc. As one of the better freshmen in the Big East last season, Yancy Gates learned to throw his weight around in the paint for the Bearcats as he collected better than six rebounds per game and turned those into 10.6 ppg. Still young and coachable, Gates could stand some focused practice on his free-throw shooting (.585) and passing skills after having just 14 assists, but 41 turnovers. Both Dion Dixon and Larry Davis finished the season as 36.7 percent shooters from the floor for Cincinnati, yet they will be crucial pieces to the puzzle this year as they continue to grow with the program as sophomores. Junior forward Rashad Bishop showed some flashes last season with his 5.4 points and 4.0 rebounds per contest, but it is probably his ball- handling skills that will reward him and the Bearcats the most as he finished with 81 assists and 37 steals last year while playing second fiddle to the primary cast of characters. The anticipated return of Cashmere Wright from a knee injury, combined with the arrival of Lance Stephenson could make the guard play of the Bearcats some of the best in the league this season.

PITTSBURGH: The only Big East team to win at least 20 overall games and 10 conference bouts in each of the last eight seasons, the Panthers could see that streak come to an end this season. Seventh-year head coach Jamie Dixon had his second 31-5 team with the 2008-09 version of the Panthers, but considering this year's squad is without all-conference performers Sam Young, DeJuan Blair and Levance Fields, the Pitt faithful had better prepare themselves accordingly. In addition to those three starters having picked up and left, so has Tyrell Biggs which means the only returning starter from such a dominant program a year ago is Jermaine Dixon. A senior guard out of Tallahassee JC, Dixon was pretty much an afterthought on the offense for the Panthers, scoring just 8.4 ppg as he shot 44 percent from the floor and a mere 29.4 percent behind the three-point line. Dixon did show promise as a set-up man with his 2-to-1 assists-to-turnover ratio, but given the long list of talented players he had on the receiving end of so many of those passes, what else was going to happen? Brad Wannamaker, who appeared in all 36 games for the team, posted a modest 5.8 ppg and actually had more assists (77) than Dixon, but in his case he also suffered 60 turnovers as well. Gilbert Brown (5.4 ppg) saw some significant playing time, averaging better than 19 minutes per game, but again he was just a stop-gap until the regulars were ready to return to action on the floor. The 2009-10 team has as many as five freshmen listed on the roster, so there will certainly be some growing pains while they all get used to each other and the returning lettermen learn what it is like to play significant minutes after watching so much from the sidelines the past few years. As a freshman last year, Ashton Gibbs was used rather sparingly, but when he did hit the hardwood he did not disappoint, converting a league- best 43.9 percent of his three-point attempts which hopefully means he is primed to play a bigger role this year.

SETON HALL: Head coach Bobby Gonzalez was a big man on campus for Manhattan earlier this decade when he led the Jaspers to the NCAA Tournament twice and got the squad into a couple of postseason NITs, but he has found out rather quickly that coaching in the Big East is a completely different animal. Granted, Seton Hall has made some strides in the last couple of years by finishing 17-15 and 7-11 versus the rest of the league, but still the postseason has eluded coach Gonzalez and his team. Now just a single game over .500 (47-46) with the Pirates, Gonzalez actually has his best group of players to date and should be able to cause a couple of upsets here and there if everything goes according to plan. There are four starters back from last year's group, the most recognizable of those being guard Jeremy Hazell who finished second in the league in scoring with his 22.7 ppg, on his way to being named to the All-Big East Third Team. Then again, Hazell had better be putting up serious points because he accounted for more than a quarter of all the team's field goal attempts on the season. Of the squad's 608 three-point tries, 290 came from Hazell. The one knock against the guard is that he is a shoot-first, pass-second kind of player who rarely gives the ball up, as evidenced by his mere 29 assists in 32 games. Handling much of the passing duties is up to Eugene Harvey (12.5 ppg) who was responsible for a team-best 158 dishes a year ago, although many of those ended up in the hands of Hazell. Harvey can be his own worst enemy at times, having shot a feeble 20.3 percent from three-point range a year ago. As a unit, Seton Hall converted just 33.1 percent beyond the arc and that's simply not good enough in a league such as this. Robert Mitchell stands as the only reliable presence in the paint for the Pirates with his 8.0 rpg from a year ago. Without Mitchell (14.6 ppg) Seton Hall would have probably bottomed out on the glass and been far worse than minus-6.3 in rebounding margin, a number that had the group ranked 319th in the country. With Paul Gause (7.8 ppg) the only real loss from the scoring ranks, Seton Hall could surprise some people, just as long as Hazell is willing to share some of the scoring responsibilities with his teammates.

ST. JOHN'S: Since the turn of the century (sounds like a long time but it really isn't) the Red Storm has had a winning record in Big East play only once and that was a mildly successful 9-7 effort back in 2001-02. Two years later the program was at the depths of the standings with just one win in 16 tries and now St. John's may again be scraping the bottom of the barrel for elusive conference victories. While there are a number of teams that are much worse off heading into 2009-10, none of them have the same sort of history that the Red Storm has had in the Big East since 1979. Nevertheless, head coach Norm Roberts goes into his sixth season anticipating his crew can hang tough with the Big East elite. The reason for optimism is because the team welcomes back every significant player from a season ago when it finished 16-18 and 6-12 in the league and was actually invited to take part in a postseason tournament even with an overall losing record. Expected to make a triumphant return to the floor for the Storm was Anthony Mason Jr. after sitting out almost all of last season due to a torn peroneal tendon in his right foot. Mason averaged 14 ppg in 2007-08, so he can obviously bring a boost of energy to the program, but recent news now has his return delayed a bit longer. Apparently Mason aggravated a hamstring injury in practice recently and will now be on the shelf for several more weeks, which means that Paris Horne will again be the main man for the Red Storm after averaging a team-best 14.6 ppg. D.J. Kennedy (13.0 ppg) and Sean Evans (10.3 ppg) will help shoulder the load, as will Justin Burrell (9.0 ppg). In Horne the team has its only true three-point threat (61-of-182), which means opponents will be able to reel in the defense and force St. John's to take difficult three- point tries which they are not accustomed to after making a mere 4.1 triples per game last season.

MARQUETTE: The Golden Eagles were third in the league and 19th in the nation in scoring last year with 78.3 ppg, but that number might have been a little deceiving in the first season for Buzz Williams in Milwaukee. Even though the team finished a respectable 25-10 and was fifth in the conference at 12-6, much of the scoring for the team came during the non-conference schedule or, more specifically, during the first three games of the season when the team combined to post 301 points versus Houston Baptist, Chicago State and local foe UW-Milwaukee. Perhaps the last month of the season was a more realistic barometer for the Eagles as they failed to reach 80 points in any one game and went beyond that number just twice after the beginning of February. After finding points relatively easy to post during the first half of 2008-09, Marquette is in for a rude awakening this year because a good portion of the scoring has picked up and left town. Jerel McNeal, Wesley Matthews and Dominic James combined to produce better than 50 ppg in conference games and between the trio there were 93 of the unit's 130 three-point baskets versus the rest of the Big East. So what does that mean for this version of the Golden Eagles? It means that the rebuilding process has begun as Lazar Hayward plays out his senior season and tries to keep from getting too low. A 46.9 percent shooter from the field who averaged 16.3 ppg, Hayward was one of the stronger interior players in the Big East last season as he worked to pull down more than eight and a half rebounds per contest. He will again be a tough matchup for opponents since he has shown that he can convert almost 36 percent of his three-point tries, but Marquette is going to need him to stay in the paint and let the guards dictate what happens out on the perimeter. After James went down late in the season with a foot injury Maurice Acker stepped in and provided a decent substitute, but he'll have to do better than 2.8 ppg if he is going to continue to see his playing time increase. Coach Williams has an impressive recruiting class coming in and some of those youngsters will have to develop rather quickly if this team is going to keep from sinking against the rest of the Big East.

PROVIDENCE: Making a huge name for himself at Drake where he led the Bulldogs to a first-place finish in the Missouri Valley Conference and a place in the NCAA Tournament in 2007-08, head coach Keno Davis took the bait and made the jump to the mightier Big East Conference last season and responded with an admirable 19-14 record. Starting off the campaign with a loss to Northeastern may have caught fans off guard, but at least Davis was able to get the team back on track and onto 10 league wins to finish in a tie for seventh place in the Big East standings. The conference win total for the Friars was their highest since 2003-04 when they were 11-5, so needless to say there were some happy faces in Providence. However, Davis now has to find a way to keep that enthusiasm going as he deals with the departure of four starters from last year's team, including top scorer Weyinmi Efejuku (15.7 ppg) and top rebounder Geoff McDermott (8.5 rpg). Actually, more than just those significant starters, the roster is almost completely new, save for four players, one of whom didn't score a single point last season. Considering the turnover in personnel, the Friars have to be pleased with the fact that they are not expected to finish at the absolute bottom of the standings. Reason for that is senior guard Sharaud Curry who not only posted 11.7 ppg last season, he also led the team with 139 assists and had twice as many dishes as he did turnovers (69). With Curry as the floor general, someone who can shoot not only 39 percent behind the three-point line but also stand as one of the best free- throw shooters in the league (.845), Curry will be able to handle the pressure in a number of ways and also get teammates like Marshon Brooks involved as much as possible. Brooks, a guard/forward combination, didn't have a lot of success shooting the ball (.384) in league play, but he has a new lease on life now that he is one of the primary options for the Friars. If nothing else, Brooks knows that he still had a better season than Brian McKenzie who made good on only 31.9 percent of his field goal attempts and 26.6 percent behind the three-point line. Unfortunately for coach Davis, that's the sort of players he has left on the roster and will have to integrate as many as eight new faces into the scheme. A couple of those guys, Russ Permenter and Kyle Wright, are juco transfers who should be ready to jump into action and given how well Permenter played with Temple JC he could be someone to watch in the frontcourt.

RUTGERS: Since joining the ranks of the Big East back in 1995, the Scarlet Knights have had very little success against the rest of the league. In fact, Rutgers has yet to post a winning campaign in conference play, coming close in 1998-99 (9-9) and 2001-02 (8-8), but last year the team reached a new low, even for them as they won just two of 18 league bouts. Four the fourth time in its Big East history, Rutgers failed to win a single conference road game and it doesn't appear as though fourth-year head coach Fred Hill is going to move much beyond that this season. Were it not for wins over DePaul and South Florida, two of the weaker teams in the Big East last season, the Knights would not have celebrated a single win since Christmas. The good news for the squad is that top scorer Mike Rosario is back for another turn, but the bad news is that Rutgers is still devoid of much experience or leadership with just a single senior (Hamady Ndiaye) on the roster. Unfortunately, Ndiaye was not much of a contributor last season with his 5.6 ppg and 5.8 rpg, and actually hurt the team as much as he may have helped by turning the ball over 48 times. Granted, Ndiaye did come up with 71 blocked shots, second only to Gregory Echenique who had 78, but the center still needs to make more of an impact in the paint, particularly at the offensive end. Still just a sophomore, Echenique contributed across the board with his 8.4 ppg and 8.4 rpg, the latter number leading the program. However, the fact that Echenique was just one more player who had trouble handling the ball is cause for concern after this team placed 317th in the nation last year in turnover margin with a minus-3.6 per game. Add to that the fact that leading assist man Anthony Farmer is no longer with the team and this could be a very messy campaign for the Knights as they try to squeeze out some measure of respectability.

SOUTH FLORIDA: Sort of the odd-man-out in the Big East, South Florida doesn't have a very friendly schedule this season and will more than likely struggle once again. Under the direction of third-year head coach Stan Heath, who brought Arkansas back from the dead and took the Razorbacks to the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons, the Bulls should be able to get beyond their nine wins from a season ago, but to expect them to finish better than the 4-14 mark they showed against the rest of the Big East would be asking a lot of this young group. One look at the roster shows just six upper classmen and only four seniors, so in a way this group is building for the future right now. The team has nowhere to go but up when it comes to offense, after placing 316th out of 330 Division I schools in scoring a season ago with a mere 59.0 ppg. The squad shot a miserable 39.9 percent from the floor (307th) and was second-to-last in the nation in free-throw shooting (.598). Clearly, not much went right for the docile Bulls in 2008-09, but at least the squad has the luxury of bringing back its top scorer in Dominique Jones, who dropped in 18.1 ppg. In an effort to do everything for his team, Jones also cleared better than five and a half rebounds per game and was second on the unit with 122 assists, but he can't do it alone again this time around which is why teammates like Augustus Gilchrist and Chris Howard will have to elevate their efforts even more. In Gilchrist, who wasn't eligible to play until the end of the fall semester last season, the Bulls have an inside presence in the making after he dropped in 10.2 ppg and cleared 4.4 rpg. However, the youngster had his issues in his first season as he shot a mere 55.8 percent at the charity stripe and was guilty of 42 turnovers, against just 12 assists. Howard, while playing more than 34 minutes per game, responded with 7.7 ppg and led the team with his 128 assists, but there were also times when it seemed like he couldn't throw the ball in the ocean, converting a weak 36.6 percent from the floor. The rest of the returning players contributed little to the action a year ago, which is why newcomers like Jarrid Famous and Shaun Noriega may well get thrown into the mix sooner than expected.

DEPAUL: Unfortunately, every league has to have a team that is destined to finish at the bottom of the standings and in the case of the Big East that appears to again be the Blue Demons after they came up winless in 18 regular- season conference outings last season. Since taking over DePaul in 2005, head coach Jerry Wainwright has had trouble keeping his program on par with the rest of the league. In fact, the Blue Demons have finished no better than seventh during that span and have been to the postseason only once. If there was even the most minute appearance of a silver lining last season it was that DePaul went into the Big East Conference Tournament and knocked Cincinnati into the loss column with a 67-57 win. Granted, the Blue Demons then dropped the following contest versus Providence (83-74) but at least the entire conference season was not a loss and there was a glimmer of hope heading into 2009-10. However, tempering that optimism is the fact that the team lost its top scorer in Dar Tucker, one of the leading scorers in the conference last year with his 18.5 ppg. On a positive note, the loss of Tucker will open the door for more players to show what they can do, while performers like Will Walker and Mac Koshwal will now be even bigger men on campus in Chicago. Walker, who shot 36.8 percent from three-point range for the season and averaged 14.6 ppg, amped up his play against the rest of the league as he converted 44.3 percent beyond the arc and tallied 16.4 ppg as a result. Koshwal, a junior forward who is a local from the Windy City, handled action in the paint for the Blue Demons with his team-best 9.6 rpg and also tallied 12.2 ppg. However, while he was a 52.7 percent shooter from the field and there was no one better on the roster, Koshwal hurt himself and the team by making a mere 57.5 percent of his free-throw chances and that dropped DePaul down to only 61.6 percent for the season, a mark that had the group listed at 321 among the 330 Division I teams that the NCAA tracked last season. if the Blue Demons are going to get anywhere this season they'll need to improve upon not only their free-throw shooting but also their team defense.

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