Yahoo Preseason Power Rankings

[foreverwarriors]

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=jn-hooppower092110

More of a conference by conference breakdown of who will make the tournament.

Includes MU as one of 5 Big East teams that will definitely be in.

"Marquette's Buzz Williams is one of the top coaches in the country, so expect the Golden Eagles to be back in the NCAA tournament."

[Blue Horseshoe]

I don't like reading into preseason lists and hype but it feels good to get mentioned.

[NersEllenson]

Buzz is really getting a lot of respect from the media - already mentioned as "one of the top coaches in the country," after only 2 seasons at the helm?  I wish the pre-mature judgements as to the merits of him as a coach would end - all of us here know it takes 5 years to evaluate a coach.  (Yet we see many cases where coaches get fired within 2 or 3 seasons on the job.)

Was nice to see Mac Irvin state about Buzz "In Marquette you have Buzz Williams one of the up and coming great coaches in the game.  With Buzz he gets the most out of his players."

Keep up the GREAT work Buzz!

[hoyasincebirth]

I really wish A site like rivals would have it's writers talk to each other. In their big east preview a couple of week Jeff Eisenberg of rivals picked georgetown to finish 4th and Austin Freeman as BE POY then this week. Jason king says we're a bubble team and have no stars.  It's just amusing to me. Bubble team, sure arguable. But to say we have no stars is just ignorant when we have 2 of the better players in the big east. I mean if chris wright and Austin Freeman aren't stars, then who is?

[PJDunn]

I really wish A site like rivals would have it's writers talk to each other. In their big east preview a couple of week Jeff Eisenberg of rivals picked georgetown to finish 4th and Austin Freeman as BE POY then this week. Jason king says we're a bubble team and have no stars.  It's just amusing to me. Bubble team, sure arguable. But to say we have no stars is just ignorant when we have 2 of the better players in the big east. I mean if chris wright and Austin Freeman aren't stars, then who is?

Jimmy f'n Butler.

[Blue Horseshoe]

Who cares if the writers disagree? Isn't that the point of having more than one writer?

[NersEllenson]

I really wish A site like rivals would have it's writers talk to each other. In their big east preview a couple of week Jeff Eisenberg of rivals picked georgetown to finish 4th and Austin Freeman as BE POY then this week. Jason king says we're a bubble team and have no stars.  It's just amusing to me. Bubble team, sure arguable. But to say we have no stars is just ignorant when we have 2 of the better players in the big east. I mean if chris wright and Austin Freeman aren't stars, then who is?

Agree that Freeman and Wright are two of the top players in the conference...but will offer that Darius Johnson Odom is right there as well.  I'd be shocked if DJO doesn't average 18-21ppg this year.

[dsfire]

Who cares if the writers disagree? Isn't that the point of having more than one writer?

Depends on how it's presented.  If it's like ESPN's power rankings where they show side-by-side rankings from different writers/prognosticators, that's one thing, but I know I've seen a Yahoo/Rivals article in the past where a team (Louisville?) was picked to win the conference in the sidebar but picked 4th or 5th in the 1-16 ranking within the article.  Different writers penning different parts of the same article, which is really confusing to the reader.

[hoyasincebirth]

I'm just saying when one writer is writing about all the conferences you think he's talk to the people who write the individual conference previews. Generally the person who's more focused knows more about the league. It's fine for reasonable people to disagree about certain things, but it just makes Jason King look dumb when one of his colleagues names a player POY  in a conference preview and then he goes on to say the team has no stars.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Jimmy f'n Butler.

hell yeah!  my guy, Jimmy F*ckin Butler.

[Skatastrophy]

I'm just saying when one writer is writing about all the conferences you think he's talk to the people who write the individual conference previews. Generally the person who's more focused knows more about the league. It's fine for reasonable people to disagree about certain things, but it just makes Jason King look dumb when one of his colleagues names a player POY  in a conference preview and then he goes on to say the team has no stars.

It depends on what he means by stars, though.  I'd contend that while MU and GTown have exceptionally talented players neither of us have nationally recognizable names on our teams.  From the national perspective, then, we're both lacking stars.

Flying under the radar nationally isn't always a bad thing

[goodgreatgrand]

It depends on what he means by stars, though.  I'd contend that while MU and GTown have exceptionally talented players neither of us have nationally recognizable names on our teams.  From the national perspective, then, we're both lacking stars.

Flying under the radar nationally isn't always a bad thing

So who are the *stars* this year in the conference...that receive national recognition?

[hoyasincebirth]

Well Austin Freeman was on Sporting News All American 5th team along with Lazar last year and is one of the names always brought up when talking about preseason big east player of the year so I think he has plenty of national buzz. 

[goodgreatgrand]

Well Austin Freeman was on Sporting News All American 5th team along with Lazar last year and is one of the names always brought up when talking about preseason big east player of the year so I think he has plenty of national buzz. 

Meh. When I think of players that garner national attention, I think of players that are candidates for national POY, not BE POY. Quick, who was the pac10 POY? I guess my point is that since BE poy is so wide open, the conference doesn't have a nationally acclaimed player this year. first time I can think of in awhile that this is the case...at this point in the 'season'.

[hoyasincebirth]

I guess I disagree. The big east is one of if not the best basketball conference in the country. If you're a star in the big east you're a national star. Austin Freeman will be a national star as will the best player on any team in the top half of the big east. If Georgetown has a good year then Freeman will at least be 2nd team all American.

And I actually knew right away that Cal's Randle was the Pac10 player of the year, but that's also a bad example since the Pac10 was terrible last year and most people on the east coast don't get to see their games since they're not on television as much as the big east is.

[Skatastrophy]

Austin Freeman will be a national star as will the best player on any team in the top half of the big east.

The "will be" is telling here.

This is just my personal opinion, though.  Whether he's a recognizable name or not right now is moot.  I think we both agree that he'll be an outstanding asset to the Hoyas this year.

[VwArrior1]

Always prefer to be underrated, espescially in preseason.

[rocky_warrior]

So GGG and Hoya are disagreeing in this thread.  I guess it's time to start SUScoop and GUScoop.  Glad to have some other school's fans checking in though.

[hoyasincebirth]

Blue Ribbon All-American Teams   for the upcoming year.
2nd team
Austin Freeman, Georgetown

3rd Team
Ashton Gibbs, Pitt
Kemba Walker, UCONN