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The Big East is going to be unbelievable in basketball this year. There is no clever way to start this post. It is just that simple. People say it every year and my little two bit analysis will mean very little, but this year the Big East is going to be even tougher than most years.

Every single team is going to be good (well, not St. John’s, but you get the idea) and just about every team is improved from last year (outside of probably Georgetown, unfortunately, but the Hoyas are still going to be tough and only get better throughout the year). They basically all play the same physical, defensive style and all of the Big East teams (even more than most conferences) are extremely well coached as much as it pains me to say that Mike Brey and Bob Huggins are good coaches.

Kansas is admittedly not the same team they were last year and Florida is by no means the same super power that one back to back championships before that, but both are still very good and both were ranked going into their respecitve games against Syracuse. Syracuse was unranked and the jury remained out on whether they had gotten any better from last year. Syracuse beat both of them. Neither game was a blowout, but both were statements by the Orange. Johnny Flynn may very well win the Big East Player of the Year. (Say what you will about Luke Harangody, he got shut down by the seive that is Roy Hibbert’s defense last year, so I’ll stand by my pick of Johnny Flynn thank you very much.) Onuaku is going to cause major problems for Big East big men all year because he will only get better and is easily thestrongest player on the floor at any given time. Eric Devendorf is back from injury and he has brought his most ugly, but most effective game back with him and Paul Harris is probably the best athlete in the Big East.

And this is an UNRANKED Big East team, at least right now. They won’t be unranked for long. Three out of the top four teams in the country (basically the three best teams in the country that don’t have the returning National Player of the Year) are from the Big East. The #8 team (who beat #7 last night), the #15 team, the #16 and the #22 team in the country are all also from the Big East. That’s SEVEN ranked teams, with two most likely on the way in Syracuse and West Virginia. (All of these rankings are from the ESPN/USA Today Poll; in the AP Poll even Seton Hall received votes.) This may be the best Big East we’ve ever seen and that is saying something. There simply will not be easy games in the Big East this year.

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