My numeric projections will be available near the start of the season, but today I want to write a few words about each Big East team’s outlook.

Earlier Previews: ACC Preview, MWC Preview, SEC Preview, WCC Preview, Atlantic-10 Preview

Big East Favorite

Villanova: It hardly seems fair to the rest of the league that last year’s Big East regular season champion also has the most returning minutes in the conference. Incoming Top 100 freshmen like Phil Booth and Mikal Bridges can simply be eased into the lineup on a team like Villanova instead of thrown into the fire. Villanova is also tied with Georgetown and Marquette for the most former Top 100 recruits on the roster with seven.

James Bell is gone, but when you have a player like Josh Hart ready to move from the bench and into the starting lineup, the future is bright. Hart was great at getting to the line, great at finishing around the rim, and even more efficient than Bell last season. With all those veterans, Villanova has very little downside risk.

Hoping for the Top 25

Georgetown: John Thompson III is confident that Joshua Smith will be eligible this year, and when Smith is on the floor, he is a dominant offensive force. Given that Smith has never played 20 minutes a game, and rarely played a full season of games, I’m a little skeptical that he can dominate for a full year. But even if Smith does not play major minutes, the Hoyas are still going to be substantially improved because of a strong recruiting class that includes Top 100 recruits Isaac Copeland, LJ Peak, and Paul White. Their size and athleticism should easily compliment a back court of D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera and Jabril Trawick. For a team that gave major minutes to three offensive liabilities last year, I will be shocked if Georgetown’s offense is not better.

But my real question is on defense. In January, I wrote how some coaches appeared to be adapting poorly to the change in the way fouls were being called. Despite the fact that their teams have fouled at a fairly consistent rate throughout their careers, John Thompson III, Roy Williams and Bill Self were all fouling at a dramatically higher rate than they had historically.

A very smart Michigan writer tweeted me and was skeptical of the numbers. After all, a handful of coaches will have outlier years every season. And the truth is, we can’t rule out that possibility. Perhaps Georgetown just happened to have some players that were particularly poor at keeping their opponent in front of them last year, and they had to foul too much. Perhaps, despite the presence of Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid, Kansas just had an unorthodox team, and that explains why Bill Self had the worst defensive team he’s ever had at Kansas. I’ve run some statistical tests, and the increase in fouling appears to go above and beyond the normal amount of statistical variation, but with one data point after the rule change, it is possible this was just a fluke.

But if you are looking for a reason to doubt Georgetown, the question of whether John Thompson III’s defense is too physical for the new foul rules is an important one. The next table shows the coaches who saw the largest uptick in fouls committed last year:

Coaches with the Biggest Increases in FTA per FGA on Defense

Coach

Team

2013

2014

Change

J. P. Piper

Nicholls St.

39

61

+22

Brian Katz

Sacramento St.

28

49

+21

Roman Banks

Southern

35

54

+19

Jim Molinari

Western Illinois

28

47

+19

Willie Hayes

Alabama A&M

36

55

+19

Kevin Nickelberry

Howard

37

54

+17

John Thompson

Georgetown

35

52

+17

Doug Wojcik

Charleston

27

43

+16

Steve Pikiell

Stony Brook

27

42

+15

Scott Sutton

Oral Roberts

28

43

+15

Howard Moore

Illinois Chicago

35

50

+15

Brian Jones

North Dakota

34

49

+15

Ray McCallum

Detroit

36

50

+15

Dana Altman

Oregon

33

48

+15

Roy Williams

North Carolina

27

41

+14

Clemon Johnson

Florida A&M

42

56

+14

Scott Nagy

South Dakota St.

24

38

+14

Mark Gottfried

North Carolina St.

29

43

+14

Randy Monroe

UMBC

44

58

+14

Cy Alexander

North Carolina A&T

41

54

+13

Bill Self

Kansas

32

45

+13

Hoping for the NCAA Tournament

Xavier: When I was reading the offseason headlines, “Semaj Christon declares for the draft”, “Justin Martin transfers”, I assumed Xavier was headed for a rebuilding season. But when you look at the Xavier lineup, it is much stronger than you might think. First, Dee Davis was not as good a scorer as Semaj Christon, but he had a very strong assist rate, and he should be able to keep the Xavier offense running at a high level. And incoming PG Edmond Sumner is viewed as a Top 100 recruit by everyone except Rivals. Off the ball, Xavier adds transfer Remy Abell, who was highly efficient at Indiana. Rising sophomore Miles Davis was also efficient and with the typical sophomore leap he should be in for a strong season. The guards might not score as much as last season, but that’s a solid group.

At the wing, the team adds Trevon Bluiett. If you are looking for a reason Justin Martin transferred, Bluiett might be the reason. The Top 40 recruit is so talented, he would have taken many of Martin’s minutes regardless. And the post might be the team’s area of greatest strength. Matt Stainbrook is a star. James Farr and Jalen Reynolds were two of the best reserve forwards in the country last year, and the team adds top 100 recruit Makinde London in the paint. Xavier lacks a little star power, and that may keep them from reaching the highest levels of performance. But their quality depth will win a ton of games.

St. John’s: This team is an enigma. They had star power with D’Angelo Harrison and JaKarr Sampson, quality depth, and they played solid defense, but they weren’t an NCAA tournament team last year. They had plenty of highly ranked recruits, but they couldn’t score.

And this offseason provides more of the same. On the one hand, the team takes a big step back in the paint, with three of the team’s four primary post players moving on. On the other hand, that means Chris Obekpa should play more minutes, and his shot-blocking can make up for a lot of errors. On the one hand, more Chris Obekpa and less JaKarr Sampson is bad for the offense. On the other hand, Rysheed Jordan should be better. Jordan was the typical freshman PG last year. He had moments of brilliance but also a bunch of games where he looked lost. If Jordan shows the typical sophomore leap and becomes more consistent this year, St. John’s offense should be better.

This seems like a key season for Steve Lavin in terms of proving he still has this team headed in the right direction. But almost any outcome seems possible at this point.

Marquette: The Big East may face tough times if the Power Five conferences begin to offer stipends and other compensation and the Big East is not allowed to match those policies. But right now, there is no reason to expect the conference to fall off the map. The Big East currently has more former RSCI Top 100 recruits per team than every conference except the ACC:

Conf

Teams

RSCI Top 100 Recruits

Top 100 Per Team

ACC

15

66

4.4

Big East

10

38

3.8

SEC

14

47

3.4

Big Ten

14

45

3.2

Pac 12

12

38

3.2

Big 12

10

31

3.1

Amer

11

20

1.8

MWC

11

15

1.4

A10

14

9

0.6

WCC

10

5

0.5

MVC

10

1

0.1

Marquette has seven former Top 100 recruits and adds BYU’s explosive scorer Matt Carlino as a transfer this season. That sounds like a dangerous lineup, but the problem is that not all Top 100 recruits are created equally.  Steve Taylor and Juan Anderson are former Top 100 recruits on Marquette’s roster, but they have largely been busts. And freshman Sandy Cohen is probably a year away from dominating at the D1 level. (Recruits ranked 51-100 are often inconsistent in their first season.) Indiana transfer and former Top 100 recruit Luke Fischer will not be available until December as he transferred mid-season, and that can often be disruptive to a team’s chemistry.

The good news is that three of the other Top 100 recruits still have lots of upside. Deonte Burton is one of my Top 10 breakout players in the country. He was an efficient high volume scorer with a great recruiting pedigree, and with more playing time he should be a star next year. Duane Wilson missed all of last year due to injury, but he still projects as a key player. And as the highest ranked recruit in the bunch, JaJuan Johnson still projects as another key player for Marquette. But even with seven former Top 100 recruits on the roster, Marquette’s roster is a work in progress.

Providence: Is it possible for me to both rave about the job Ed Cooley is doing and say that most people are probably over-rating the Friars NCAA chances? Well, that’s exactly what I am about to do.

On the one hand, Providence’s program is as healthy as it has been in a long time. The team is getting key commitments from quality players years in advance. To say the talent level on this team has been upgraded is a huge understatement. LaDontae Henton is now the ONLY player on the roster who was not a consensus 3-star recruit out of high school. And Henton has turned into a star anyhow. Given where this program was five years ago, that’s amazing.

But despite a very positive outlook in the long-run, 2014-15 looks like a bit of a transition year. First, this team barely snuck into the NCAA tournament last year. They may have given North Carolina a scare, but their margin-of-victory was only 51st in the nation. And losing Bryce Cotton, their most efficient player, their best passer, their best scorer, and a player who never left the floor, is going to hurt.

Second, the team is going to have to give more minutes to freshmen. Last year with Brandon Austin and Rodney Bullock suspended, Providence basically never used any first-year players. This year with Bullock eligible and an outstanding recruiting class coming in, Providence projects to give substantially more minutes to its young players. And while many of them are talented, playing inexperienced players will lead to more mistakes. There will be games where players don’t rotate properly defensively, and games where players simply stand around and don’t run the offensive sets with the same crispness of a veteran team.

And while many of the names sounds scary, many of the players don’t have great projections for this season. PG Kris Dunn was an elite recruit, but he has struggled massively with injuries, and hasn’t been able to perform at an elite level in his two seasons with the team. That may mean more minutes for freshman PG Kyron Cartwright. Meanwhile Carson Desrosiers is a quality shot-blocking big man, but he is a very passive offensive player. And while transfer Junior Lomomba has received some positive reviews on the team’s European tour, he didn’t have great efficiency numbers at Cleveland St. That doesn’t necessarily bode well for him being an efficient player in the Big East. Rodney Bullock seems like a household name at this point because of the off-court issues, but I also think we need to recognize that he was only a 3-star recruit. He does not necessarily project as a star. Honestly, the true freshmen may be deserving of the most love. Paschal Chukwu and Jalen Lindsey were both consensus Top 100 recruits, and Ben Bentil may be the most polished of the young big men.

The good news is that Providence has great depth in the front-court. Despite being a guard-heavy, defensively weak team the last few years, the upgrade in the team’s post-players means the team’s defense may finally take a key step forward. But the numbers suggest Providence’s offense will take a key step back. Obviously with quality returning double figure scorers LaDontae Henton and Tyler Harris leading the way, Providence could be back in the tournament. But this is a team that needs to try out a number of unproven pieces, and a couple of bad losses in the non-conference schedule could leave this team on the wrong side of the bubble.

Hoping for the NIT

Seton Hall: And if you think Providence is going to have a young team, Seton Hall is going to be even younger. If I were to rank the Pirate’s seven best players heading into next season, I would say that four of them are freshmen. The best news is that the team has an experienced PG in Sterling Gibbs, so even if the team is young, at least they have a leader on the floor.

Isaiah Whitehead is a Top 20 recruit, but given how much Seton Hall will be relying on him, he will probably finish in the Top 10 in freshmen scoring nationally. Realistically, Seton Hall is a year away. Brandon Mobley is the only key player who will run out of eligibility at the end of the season, so if the team can convince Whitehead to stick around for his sophomore year and develop enough of the young players, there is no reason this team cannot be one of the best teams in the conference next season.

Creighton: Creighton is going to be worse without Doug McDermott. But it isn’t just McDermott. The team also lost a number of sharp-shooting veteran perimeter players as well. Center Will Artino made 67% of his buckets last year, but that was because he was taking mostly wide-open lay-ups. Without the same players spreading the floor next season, his shooting percentage is going to plummet. But there is one critical reason for optimism. McDermott stayed on as a walk-on last year which allowed the team to stockpile more players on the bench. And even though Creighton lost a ton of production, this is not a particularly young team. With additions like Cal transfer Ricky Kreklow and Top 100 recruit Ronnie Harrell, this team may surprise us.

Butler: The return of Roosevelt Jones from injury will be huge. Andrew Chrabascz is much better than most people think. And Kellen Dunham is still a star. But the drop-off to the rest of the roster is pretty significant.

Alex Barlow might be the best “former walk-on” in the country, but even giving it his all, he doesn’t have the athleticism to truly be a star. Kameron Woods can rebound quite well, but he has horrible hands for a big man. Indiana transfer Austin Etherington might sound like a key player, but he couldn’t even earn playing time in a down year for the Hoosiers, and he injured his foot this summer. That does not foretell a breakout season.

More of the Same

DePaul: Whenever ESPN does a star-watch feature on DePaul this year, expect them to focus on Billy Garrett. Garrett was a former 4-star recruit and he is the team’s leading returning scorer. Maybe, since he is only a sophomore, DePaul will have a good season before he graduates. The Blue Demons hope that by adding three Top 100 JUCO transfers and Illinois transfer Myke Henrythat they will play better. But they have a long way to go to be competitive with the rest of this league.