After banner year, Big East basketball teams forced to reload

On what otherwise might have been a smug, self-satisfied train ride back to Philadelphia after his team was picked to win this season's Big East title, Villanova Coach Jay Wright spoke to his players about toughness and leadership.

Not the toughness and leadership the squad boasted, but the toughness and leadership they had yet to demonstrate.

"We're going to take that [coaches' vote at Big East media day] today as a great honor," Wright told them, "and then we're going to go back to practice, because we've got a lot to prove. Nobody's going to go through this league on talent."

It was a lesson Georgetown learned so painfully last year, opening conference play with a stunning upset of preseason favorite Connecticut, only to sputter to a 16-15, 7-11 finish and miss out on an NCAA tournament bid.

Connecticut learned a similar lesson. Although the Huskies reached the Final Four, Coach Jim Calhoun conceded he expected more after his squad's 24-1 start.

"There was a feeling of accomplishment last year, as [the NCAA] West regional champions," Calhoun said last month, "but also a little disappointment that maybe we didn't get the whole thing."

The league's top defensive player, Connecticut's Hasheem Thabeet, was taken second overall by the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA draft. Its best point guard, the tireless Jonny Flynn of Syracuse, was picked sixth. And Louisville, which claimed the Big East regular season and tournament titles, lost a pair of stars in Terrence Williams and Earl Clark, chosen 11th and 14th, respectively.

As a result, the Big East isn't casting a particularly imposing shadow over college basketball's national landscape as the 2009-2010 season gets underway. But that doesn't mean the scramble to emerge atop the league won't be worth watching.

"Last year, the Big East was the best by far conference; the only discussion was who was second and how far behind," ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said. "This year, I don't think it will be as daunting. There are fewer teams that are national-championship good, but there are more teams that are they-can-beat-you good."

Among the teams whose fortunes are expected to rise: Cincinnati, Georgetown and Seton Hall -- all mired in the bottom half of the conference standings last year.

And with four starters returning (most notably senior forward Da'Sean Butler), West Virginia ought to make an impressive leap. Some prognosticators have penciled in Bob Huggins's Mountaineers as a Final Four team.

The pecking order among last season's elite will likely be scrambled, as well.

Louisville lost just two Big East games (to Connecticut and Notre Dame) last season. But the Cardinals have been fraught with turmoil since, with Coach Rick Pitino the target of an alleged extortion attempt following an extramarital affair, and two returning players starting the season on one-year's probation after a scuffle at an Indiana restaurant.

Pitino insists that his personal issues won't be a distraction. And there's scant evidence it has affected recruiting.

If anything, Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim predicts, Pitino's players will compete even harder for him this season.

"My feeling about what players care about is: They want to play in a good program, for a good coach who cares about his players and likes his players," Boeheim said, bristling a bit about being queried on the topic. "If he made a mistake in life, they don't give a [darn]. . . . Nobody that knows anything about this business or this game thinks that it will matter one tiny, tiny fraction. Not one."

Connecticut faces its own challenges in replacing three key members of last season's Final Four squad: Thabeet, the league's most prolific shot-blocker; A.J. Price and Jeff Adrien.

Villanova will surely miss the leadership of forward Dante Cunningham, whose versatility (16.1 points, 7.5 rebounds) posed matchup problems for most opponents. But the Wildcats also return senior guard Scottie Reynolds (Herndon). And Wright has landed what many feel is the strongest class of recruits in Wildcat history.

That's largely why Big East coaches anointed Villanova as the favorite to dominate the regular season.

But toughness, more than talent, will likely tell the tale.

Says ESPN's Doug Gottlieb, who played at Notre Dame and Oklahoma State: "Villanova might actually have more talent, but they won't have more experience. It'll be interesting to see how the new and old guys mesh."

The distinction isn't lost on Georgetown Coach John Thompson III, whose erratic 2008-09 Hoyas squad leaned heavily on the shoulders of two sophomores (Chris Wright and Austin Freeman) and a freshman (Greg Monroe).

"Talent goes a long way," Thompson said, "but there is no substitute for experience. That means understanding how hard this league is; understanding how difficult winning is. That's something you have to go through. That takes experience."