The Big East Figures to be Powerhouse League in 2017-18

It’s May 25th. The NBA Draft declaration dust has officially settled, as of 11:59pm last night, and it’s time to take an early look at the Big East conference for the 2017-18 season. There are 170 days between now and the start of the 2017-18 college basketball season on Friday, November 10th.  So, yes,  there could still be roster changes that impact next season, but we now know which key players are going pro and which key players are returning to school.

Player	School	Returning to School?
Foster, Marcus	Creighton	Yes
Patton, Justin	Creighton	No
Peak, LJ	Georgetown	No
Bullock, Rodney	Providence	Yes
Delgado, Angel	Seton Hall	Yes
Ahmed, Bashir	St. John’s	Yes
Bluiett, Trevon	Xavier	Yes
Kanter, Kerem	Xavier	Yes
Sumner, Edmond	Xavier	No

Big East players with eligibility remaining that declared for the 2017 NBA Draft

This version of the 10-team Big East has had four seasons to prove itself as a basketball power conference. In that time the league has compiled 22 NCAA Tournament bids, 4 Sweet 16 appearances, 2 Elite 8 appearances, 1 Final 4 appearance and the National Championship win by Villanova in 2016. Overall the Big East has 22 NCAA Tournament wins over the last 4 seasons. The Big East’s RPI each season has finished in the top 4 and the league has finished top 5 each season in the Kenpom ratings.

2014-2017 NCAA Tournament Performance

League	Wins	Losses	Bids	National Championships
ACC	53	26	28	2
American*	12	11	12	1
Atlantic 10	9	15	15	0
Big 12	29	27	27	0
Big East	22	21	22	1
Big Ten	38	27	27	0
Pac-12	30	21	21	0
SEC	32	16	16	0

*Louisville was in the American for the 2013-14 season. The Cardinals account for 1 bid, 2 wins and 1 loss for that league in that season before leaving for the ACC.
All of the success the league has had since in this iteration has helped re-gain the respect that was severely lacking following the Catholic 7 split and subsequent poor NCAA Tournament performance back in 2014. Obviously topping the 2016 National Championship will be difficult, but the Big East is poised to have their deepest cadre of teams in the 2017-18 season. Picking the conference standings on May 25th is typically a difficult proposition any year, but this year it seems especially daunting with league likely to churn itself up.

Having said that, here’s the pcbb1917.com 2017-18 final standings prediction on May 25th:

1. Villanova
2. Xavier
3. Seton Hall
4. Providence
5. Butler
6. Creighton
7. Marquette
8. St. John’s
9. DePaul
10. Georgetown

What’s your prediction? Vote in this poll and leave your comments, reasoning, criticism or whatever else you want to say below.

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