Big East, Villanova carry newfound swagger into 2016-17 season

We have officially reached that awkward point in the college hoops offseason where the dust has mostly settled from all the transfer/coaching carousel madness, but it’s still too early to start any serious previewing of the 2016-17 campaign.

In keeping with the spirit of the season, it’s time to begin our series of brief rundowns of what each conference looks like after all the moving and shaking that has happened since Villanova cut down the nets in Houston. We started things off with looks at the West Coast, American, Atlantic 10 and Mountain West conferences, and continue today with the Big East, home of the reigning national champions.

1. Validation via Villanova

The days of the Big East consistently being referred to as “new” are over. Or at least they should be, thanks to Villanova’s 2017 national championship.

For the past three seasons, the league has been one of the top five conferences in the country according to any conceivable metric. Unfortunately, that hasn’t altered the fact that, since the start of the 2013-14 season, the conference has been competing with its own past as much as it has the ACC or the Big Ten. The loss of a handful of its most recognizable names, a new television deal that took its games off ESPN and a few early exits in the NCAA Tournament had branded the league with a “still good, but not what it was” stigma.

The moment Jenkins’ shot ripped through the net on April 4, it ushered in a new era for the Big East, one where “new” is no longer a word that stings. When something like that happens, it opens new windows for an audience to see things that were there all along. Before the Wildcats toppled North Carolina in one of the most memorable national title games of all time, those things were overshadowed by what the conference lost from its past existence, and what it couldn’t seem to accomplish in its new one.

If there was a lack of respect for the Big East from some in the college basketball world, it certainly never showed on Selection Sunday. In 2014 and 2015, the conference had four teams that earned a No. 4 seed or better from the Selection Committee, and two more who earned six seeds. Just one of these squads advanced to the second weekend of the tournament, and none made it to a regional final.

There was a sense heading into the 2015-16 season that the aura of the old Big East name could only carry its current 10 teams so far before the hoops world started demanding greater results on the sport’s biggest stage. A conference that enjoyed the type of regular season success that the Big East had was certainly worthy of praise, but that praise was unlikely to come until at least one of them made a legitimate run at a national title.

It’s safe to assume that this is where the Big East is going to reside from this point on, a place where it’s known for both the familiar attributes of its past and the contemporary strengths of its present. New, old or whatever, Villanova’s championship has allowed and will continue to allow the Wildcats’ conference to be seen in the light its most familiar with: One of a conference that is not just among the best in college basketball, but one fully capable of producing champions.

2. Who’s next?

While ‘Nova’s breakthrough brought added respect to that program and deserved respect to the Big East as a whole, there’s still another step for the league to take if it wants to be seen as a perennial competitor with the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12. That next involves some team other than ‘Nova breaking through to the Elite Eight and, potentially, the Final Four.

There will be multiple candidates in 2016-17, a group headlined by a Xavier team still looking to shake the sting of Bronson Koenig’s back-to-back daggers that sent them packing in the second round. That Musketeer team was seeded second, just like Villanova, and could have easily seen its season end in the same city as the Wildcats had it not been for that final minute collapse against Wisconsin. Chris Mack’s team broke just about every regular season school record in 2015-16. The core of that team is back for another year, and their goal isn’t just to earn a No. 2 seed and win a game in the NCAA Tournament.

It’s not just Xavier, though. While Villanova’s championship has taken some pressure off the rest of the league, that reduction will only be temporary if Georgetown, Marquette and the gang don’t return to form in the very near future. As much scrutiny as the conference faced during its inception, most college basketball die-hards would have guessed that it would have produced more than one regional finalist in its first three seasons.

March success is always a relative term. The Big East can now lay claim to the only unambiguous form of that success thanks to Villanova’s national title. Now it’s time to build on that foundation.

3. Can Georgetown, Marquette or St. John’s surprise?

Because of their proud traditions historical success, Georgetown, Marquette and St. John’s were supposed to be three of the spotlight programs for the Big East. Instead, the trio has produced a combined two NCAA Tournament appearances, and just one win in the Big Dance.

While Steve Wojciechowski and Chris Mullin are both still cutting their teeth as head coaches, John Thompson is entering his 13th season and is fighting to regain the sparkling reputation he enjoyed a decade ago. None of these three teams seem likely to start the season with a national ranking, or to compete for a trip to Phoenix once March rolls around, but that doesn’t make 2016-17 any less significant for the direction of their programs.

Georgetown has the tools to be competitive with the top of the conference, and Hoya fans who expected their team to be what Villanova has become for the Big East, need to see that happen. After a disastrous 8-24 debut campaign that included just one conference victory, Mullin now has a roster that at least looks like it belongs in the Big East. Translating that into a more respectable final record is an important next step for a St. John’s fan base that is eager to get behind a winner. The same goes for Marquette, which enjoyed the talents of Henry Ellenson for one season, but is now left wondering when it’s going to get back to being an NCAA Tournament mainstay. An overachieving 2016-17 season would do wonders to ease a great deal of that tension.

Xavier

Butler

Creighton

Marquette

Georgetown

DePaul

Austin Grandstaff (Ohio State)

St. John’s

Marvin Clark Jr. (Michigan State)

Xavier

Larry Austin Jr. (Vanderbilt)

Providence

Quadree Smith

Butler

Creighton

DePaul

Oumar Barry

Fred Scott (Rider)

St. John’s

1. Villanova -- It’s been said before, but this might be the best shot we’ve seen at a repeat national champion in college basketball since Florida achieved the feat exactly a decade ago.

2. Xavier -- Chris Mack has one of the most lethal backcourts in the country. If he can get enough production from his frontcourt, the Musketeers will be right back in the national title discussion for a second straight year.

3. Georgetown -- The Hoyas were one of the most puzzling and disappointing teams of 2015-16. They lose leading scorer D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera, but there’s still more than enough top-tier talent on this roster for JT III to be able to compete with Villanova and Xavier.

6. Marquette -- The Golden Eagles have the best incoming freshman class in the conference and a key transfer in UNLV’s Katin Reinhardt, but are still likely a season away from being a legitimate threat to the top of the conference.

8. Providence -- While there’s certainly hope for Providence in the post-Dunn/Bentil era, it’s foolish to think that the Friars won’t be taking a massive step back in 2016-17.

9. DePaul -- After spending almost a decade finishing in last or tied for last in the final Big East standings, the Blue Demons have now been out of the cellar in back-to-back seasons. Three straight years would make it a streak.

10. St. John’s -- There’s undoubtedly more talent on this year’s roster than there was a season ago, but how well all those new pieces come together will ultimately determine just how much better the Johnnies are