NEW YORK -- What do you call a Villanova team that loses four stud players to the NBA?
The preseason favorites, that’s what.
Yes, for the fifth consecutive season the Wildcats landed in the penthouse suite of the BIG EAST’s Preseason Coaches Poll, it was announced at the conference’s media day at Madison Square Garden. No Jalen Brunson. No Mikal Bridges. No Donte DiVincenzo. No Omari Spellman. No problem, at least according to league coaches who are going to have to deal with head coach Jay Wright’s program head on again this season.
“The league might be a little more wide open but you still got to beat Villanova,” Providence Friars’ head coach Ed Cooley said. “That dude is a Hall of Fame coach (and) he’s got great players. (Senior Eric) Paschall is a fifth-year senior, (Phil) Booth is a fifth-year senior. (Dhamir) Cosby-Roundtree has improved. (Incoming freshman Jahvon) Quinerly, however you say his name, he’s just a jet with the ball. (Freshman) Cole Swider, who we recruited, can really shoot. They’re good. I don’t care what anybody says. You’ve got to beat them.”
Yes, there will be a lot of new faces wearing the Wildcat blue and white this season. But different doesn’t necessarily mean there will be a big drop off from past Villanova teams.
“We have a lot of teams that were young last year that are now experienced teams and a lot of the experienced teams from last year have young teams,” Wright said. “So you have a chance for a lot of volatility. I’m sure it was harder for everybody to pick, I know it was harder for us, to pick the preseason poll because you know Marquette got some guys coming back, Providence does, Georgetown, St. John’s. You know Creighton’s got good young players and DePaul’s got some really solid guys coming back. This will probably be the most unpredictable season since we’ve had the new BIG EAST.”
Marquette, which is coming off a 21-win season and a trip to the NIT, was picked second in the poll, their highest placement since being tabbed first in 2013-14. The Golden Eagles lost sharpshooter Andrew Rowsey to graduation, but unlike many other programs in the league, the Golden Eagles return the bulk of their roster, led by otherworldly shooter Markus Howard. Howard averaged 20.4 points a game last season while shooting 93.8% on free throws and long-range sniper Sam Hauser shot almost 49% from three-point range last season, good for third in the nation.
“The strengths of our team is our depth, our balance and our versatility,” Marquette head coach Steve Wojciechowski said. ”We’ve been a program that has been very good on the offensive end (but) certainly our biggest room for improvement is on the defensive end. Hopefully we’ll be a good all-around team and we can’t be defined by one thing.”
Providence grabbed the poll’s third spot as the Friars are coming off a season in which they made their fifth straight trip to the NCAA Tournament, a school record. But despite losing the talented trio of Rodney Bullock, Kyron Cartwright and Jalen Lindsey, Cooley is upbeat about his team’s chances in 2918-19.
We’re versatile, we’re enthusiastic and this group has been fun,” Cooley said. “I don’t know how good we are but they’re fun to be around. I think people are going to enjoy watching us play.”
Junior Alpha Diallo will be looked at to lead the Friars this season after averaging 13.2 points and 6.5 rebounds last season.
Chris Mullin’s St. John’s Red Storm garnered the fourth spot in the poll as they return three key starters and also picked up a potentially explosive piece when former Auburn star Mustapha Heron was granted a legislative relief waiver by the NCAA, allowing him to be eligible for the Johnnies this season.
Those four, along with some other new faces, could spell trouble for the rest of the BIG EAST as the St. John’s program could be one to contend with this season.
“I’m happy for the BIG EAST, I’m happy for Chris (Mullin), who is an unbelievable human being,” Cooley said. “We need St. John’s to be good and they are good. They’re very good. They’re about to have an unbelievable season.”
The Johnnies return the Preseason Player of the Year in Shamorie Ponds, who averaged 21.6 points last year and is the conference’s leading returning scorer. But Ponds will be plenty of help from Justin Simon, who not only averaged 12.2 points but led the Johnnies in rebounds (7.1), assists (5.1) and steals (2.5). Toss in Marvin Clark II, who logged 12.5 points a game last season, and Heron, 16.4 points per outing, and you can see why Cooley and others around the league are casting a watchful eye at St. John’s this season.
The fifth spot in the poll finds a Butler team that just made its fourth straight trip to the NCAA tournament but will be looking to replace Kelan Martin and Tyler Wideman. The Bulldogs, however, do return junior Kamar Baldwin, who averaged 15.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.2 assist and 1.5 steals. It seems there is little Baldwin, a Preseason First Team selection, can’t do on the court.
“Obviously we’re going to miss those guys a lot and Kelan’s scoring, over 2,000 points,” Baldwin said. “But we learned a lot from those guys and I’m going to be more of a leader for the team. We still have a lot of guys coming back and we’ll need some of the young guys to step up in their roles and they are already showing that in practice. So I think we’ll be just fine.”
Xavier, No. 6 in the poll, is one season removed from its first BIG EAST regular season title and the school’s first ever No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Xavier has a new head coach in Travis Steele, who will be looking for ways to fill the voids left by the graduations of Trevon Bluiett and J.P. Macura.
“I like the way we’re working,” Steele said. “Our practices have been good, our guys have brought great attitudes to practice every single day and I think our guys know how to win. They’re used to winning. I like our team. I really do.”
Georgetown places seventh in the poll, coming off a 15-win season in head coach Patrick Ewing’s first year at the helm. Ewing will look to build his Hoyas’ fortunes around the 6-10, 270-pound mountain known as Jessie Govan, the only returning player in the conference to average a double-double last season.
So do Govan and the rest of the Hoyas know how good Ewing was during his playing days at Georgetown?
“Oh they know,“ Ewing said laughing. “I tell them enough.
So what’s the plan for Year Two for of the Ewing Era?
“Last year I said we’d build the foundation,” Ewing said. “Now we’re starting to put the building up.” And a lot of that building will be around Govan, who averaged 10.0 points and 17.9 rebounds last season. He is the conference’s top returning rebounder.
Seton Hall comes in No. 8 in the poll after the Pirates lost Angel Delgado, Khadeen Carrington and Desi Rodriguez to graduation. Now head coach Kevin Willard will look to reload behind junior guard Myles Powell.
“(Eighth) is kind of where we should be picked to be honest with you,” Willard said. “If you look at the production that we lost, our points and rebounds, just from that stat alone. It’s something that we talked about as a team that we have a lot of work to do. But I like the way this group is working, I like the leadership that we have so far. Quincy McKnight and Myles Powell have been phenomenal. There’s good energy and they’re working hard but as far as preseason rankings we’re probably where we should be.”
Creighton will be without Marcus Foster (19.8 ppg.), Khyri Thomas (15.1 ppg) and Toby Hegner (8.4 ppg.) from last season’s 21-win team. But they do have a healthy Martin Krampelj back from his knee injury and that alone is cause for optimism in Omaha.
“I’m 100 percent, ready to go,” Krampelj said. “I know we lost some big guys but I still think we’re going to be pretty good. We got some new faces (like Connor Cashaw and Marcus Zegarowski) coming in so I think we still have a good chance to be a top team in the BIG EAST.”
DePaul rounds out the field in 10th place but the Blue Demons will see if its veteran backcourt of Max Strus and Eli Cain can finally turn around a program that has seemed poised to do so in recent seasons.
“Absolutely, this is the year to do it,” said Strus. who averaged 16.8 points last season. “Obviously this is my last (season), me and Eli’s, so I want to do it. We’re just trying to change it here. It’s rough. It’s harder than we thought it was going to be but we’re ready for the challenge and ready to take it on.”