Who will be the Big East favorite for 2014?

[admin]

New board and already in fighting-not what I expected here. I was hoping the new conference members and the other members for nexy year would get along and make it the best conference and board-maybe not.

To be honest I was thinking the same thing. Hate each other on the court. Love each other off the court. Respect each other always... Granted there will always be a few bad apples, the Big East has been very civil compared to other conferences over the years. I hope it remains this way in the new league.

I think people are just being really passionate about their teams and overly fidgety in regards to waiting for the news to break. Show some love people! We're all in this together!

I have sent a couple of polite PM's to a few folk here so far asking them to add to the discussion or don't bother posting. I will keep an eye on it, but would love to add a mod or two who could assist.

[SixTwentySix]

Admin for commissioner!!

[James]

Didn't mean to cause any offence when I said that Xavier and co would be in for a culture shock - I only meant that the competition is going to be extremely intense (more so than the A10 and MVC) and I imagine that all 3 new teams will be right in the mix.

[SixTwentySix]

Didn't mean to cause any offence when I said that Xavier and co would be in for a culture shock - I only meant that the competition is going to be extremely intense (more so than the A10 and MVC) and I imagine that all 3 new teams will be right in the mix.

Nah, you're absolutely fine James. There's a difference between opinion and insult. I feel the 3 teams will have to make a bigger adjustment as well, there's nothing offensive about that. They're all great programs and they will adjust, maybe very quickly. But it's still a new conference regardless, and I think most people on this thread are just stressing that it will be interesting (and fun) to see how things develop. I'm really looking forward to it.

[xu95]

Xavier is going to have issues because we are still recovering from what happened last summer. The new conference and the competition won't be an issue. You can take a look at how we schedule out of conference to see that we are preparing ourselves for the Tourney every year.

I expect Xavier to be somewhere middle of the pack next year.

[Hoops]

However a team like Creighton will have a lot more film to study and every game will be a new experience. Will be interesting to see if this plays as an advantage or disadvantage to any one team, if anything at all.[/quote]

Pretty good point. Creighton will have to learn every Big East and former A10 coaches styles and players. Every game will be like a new OOC game next year and it will be against some pretty darn good competition every night unlike in the past.

Creighton is an offensive minded, jump shooting team. Defense is an after thought and mostly by accident. Maybe too extreme an assessment, but the team was near the bottom in defense in all D1 the past 2 years for a reason. And next year, there will no longer be any night, that CU gets a break between games with this level and degree of intense defensive competition.
My thoughts are that CU will need to adjust and it may take a year or two to get to the physical and defensive level of the league. But the confidence from following CU over they years is that they adjust to their environment and build for their future success. So I'll remain confident, even in a down year or two while (or if) they need to regroup.

CU has played defensive minded programs in the past either in conference or OOC, so its not like they'll be completely clueless, they've just had balance of similar styles in the MVC as it wasn't stacked with defensive minded programs. So the change of style may very well be a cultural shock (i get what you're saying) for them initially when they have to go up against a physical team every night.. Cincy on Friday will be the first good test for CU (IMO), but still its only one game in a league seemingly loaded with defensive minded programs - every night.

[PorkTornado]

Creighton ranked 79th in field goal percentage defense this year. Hardly near the bottom.

[RxJay]

Hoops, how long have you been following Creighton? SIU, Wichita, Wisconsin and UNI are not defensive minded teams. WOW

[Edrick]

Butler will end up with a ranked 2013 class (will have 3 Rivals 150 commitments and 1 NR 3-star) and are positioned to surpas that level in 2014.

They'll probably pull back to NIT land next year, but they are getting the pieces for a real run after that.

In fact, that Final Four in in Indy in 14/15 and BU has made the cut list of of some big time 14s including 1-and-done local 5star Trey Lyles.

[Throwbackmuskie]

I think it is gonna be a four horse league mainly, Xavier, Georgetown, Marquette and Villanova. This year was a down year for x but they will be back and strong next year. I tend to agree the Creighton and butler will be in for a shock. Remember Xavier has been scheduling up in out of conference games for years so I don't think there will be any shock or adjustments needed.