Though the Georgetown campus is buzzing with high expectations for this year’s basketball team, Big East coaches apparently have far less confidence in Ewing’s squad.
Thursday marked the annual Big East Media Day, as coaches, players and representatives from around the league gathered at Madison Square Garden to talk with the media. In the preseason rankings released at the event, the Hoyas were projected to finish sixth in the conference.
This certainly rubbed some Hoya fans the wrong way, as one would expect a team that returns four starters, including Big East Freshman of the Year James Akinjo, to certainly be amongst the top contenders in the conference. In addition, Georgetown has brought in impact transfers (notably Omer Yurtseven, Terell Allen, and Galen Alexander) who add experience to the team.
On the contrary, the Big East figures to be much improved this season and could send as many as six or seven teams to the Big Dance, according to some analysts.
Beyond the top tier (of Seton Hall and Villanova), a case can be made for any of the next five ranked teams as the third best team in the conference coming into the year. Outside of Georgetown, the other four teams (Xavier, Marquette, Providence and Creighton) return their top scorer from last year. Ewing discussed the strength of the conference in the video below.
Clearly, the Big East looks to be very solid (at least from the 1-7 positions) and figures to be as competitive as any conference in the nation.
On the individual side, the conference named their preseason player of the year (Myles Powell to the surprise of no one), as well as first and second teams. Georgetown was left off the first team entirely. Akinjo was the sole Hoya on the second team, and Yurtseven was named as an honorable mention. Especially of note was the decision to leave off sophomores Mac McClung and Josh LeBlanc, both members of the All-Freshman Team last year. McClung and the rest of the Hoyas embrace the underdog mindset, and should use this slight as further motivation for the upcoming season.
Media Day also presents the opportunity for top players from around the conference to interact with one another. Providence guard Luwane Pipkins, a grad transfer from UMass, took the opportunity to trash talk the competition.
That’s a lot of talk for someone who has yet to play a minute of Big East basketball. McClung was content to just smile and brush off the comment. He’ll let his play do the talking.
