MU prepares for final run at title in old BE in 2013, and possibly an equally competitive new BE in 2014

With Midnight Madness just one week away, Marquette certainly looks like a team that can finish in the top half of the Big East this year.  Based on www.valueaddbasketball.com, Marquette remains the 25th best team heading into the conference.  While six Big East teams rank even higher, they are very bunched together and MU probably has fewer questions than any team in front of them.

	2013 Big East Standings	Natl
1	Louisville	6
2	Providence	11
3	Pittsburgh	13
4	Notre Dame	17
5	Syracuse	22
6	Georgetown	24
7	Marquette	25
8	Connecticut	38
9	Rutgers	53
10	St. John's	59
11	South Florida	66
12	Villanova	69
13	Seton Hall	86
14	Cincinnati	90
15	DePaul	119
	Conference Average	47

Sure, MU has to replace an incredible duo, but with so much talent moving up MU looks like a top 25 team.  Louisville is the prohibitive favorite, but just had a tough injury, and despite the lofty projections for Providence and Pitt based on Value Add, even it's author has to question if either of those teams can really skyrocket that far ahead of where they were last year.  With the questions on those three, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Georgetown all project BARELY ahead of MU - all within 8 spots - so it is certainly much easier to see MU passing any and all of the six teams in front of them than falling behind many teams behind them.  On paper, this is a seven team race for the final Big East title in the conference we have grown to know - with the single absence of West Virginia.

Will Memphis and Houston keep the Big East among the Elite in 2014?

However, I have to admit with the national potential for MU in 2014, I will be keeping one eye on Memphis, Houston, Central Florida, Temple and SMU.  No greater a number-cruncher than Luke Winn has calculated that the Big East after this year could drop to the 6th best basketball conference, but I was surprised when running the numbers to see that the Value Add projections for next year - even assuming all planned moves happen in time for the 2014 season - actually shows the conference staying just as strong in 2014 as in 2013 based on the average national rankings of all members in Value Add projections.

I ran the longer post below on the ranking of the top 150 teams in the country, and have just updated it based the new signings for Kentucky, South Florida and others this week.  When you look at the Rnk2 number - the most realistic expectation of what the 2014 roster will look like (your projected NBA players go to the draft, but you get the calculated average of the recruits to fill your remaining spots), the Big East actually stays exactly the same with an average national ranking of 47th.

Of course projections are not precise like measuring past performance, and certainly projections a year out are even less so, but here is where the future Big East teams project to rank nationally in 2014 compared to this year.

	2014 Big East Standings	2013 Natl	2014 Natl	Hypothetical with all NBA players staying
1	Memphis	na	2	(drops to 4th if Thomas stays but top 3 keep theirs too)
2	Marquette	25	4	drop to 19th
3	Providence	11	7	drop to 26th
4	Georgetown	24	9	(up to 8th if Porter stays)
5	Louisville	6	16	(up to 13th if Dieng and Blackshear stay)
6	Connecticut	38	18	(up to 17th if Napier stays)
7	Houston	na	28	drop to 36th
8	Villanova	69	37	drop to 43rd
9	Rutgers	53	45	drop to 53rd
10	South Florida	66	50	drop to 58th
11	Seton Hall	86	51	drop to 59th
12	DePaul	119	58	drop to 65th
13	St. John's	59	59	(up to 34th if Harrison stays)
14	Central Florida	na	86	drop to 98th
15	Cincinnati	90	96	drop to 105th
16	Temple	na	112	drop to 121st
17	Southern Methodist	na	115	drop to 124th
	Conference Average	47	47

The two big questions on this chart are whether or not Memphis has really collected enough talent to burst into the top 10 this year, and if Houston is really on course to move all the way into the top 30 by next year.  However, by the same token one has to wonder if Temple will really fall as far as projected after being able to tell recruits they are back in the Big East.

For this reason I will have one eye on the Big East standings and another on Memphis, Houston and the rest this year.  If the Big East once again emerges strong in basketball after realignment, as happened after the last ACC raid, then it's possible recruiting could stay right on course throughout the conference.

MU 2014 could drop from 2nd to 5th in BE if UConn, Lville & Gtown keep NBA players

In fairness, one item I do need to note is that the new Big East is only projected to produce five likely NBA draftees after this coming season.  A lot of these teams are in the same boat as Marquette, benefiting from strong classes moving forward to 2014 but without many players who will be so good they will leave.  The great news is that Marquette now projects to finish 2nd to Memphis in the Big East in 2014.  However, as you can see from the notes, if the NBA prospects for UConn, Louisville and Georgetown do not enter the 2013 draft after this season, then all three teams would be projected to pass Marquette to push us back to 5th in the conference in 2014.

Either way, the future is looking bright for Marquette and Big East basketball.

The following are the updates on the post below of all teams.

South Florida breaks into 2014 Top 50 with recruit

While the Harrison twins going to Kentucky was obviously the big recruiting news this week, the nice pick up in the Big East was by South Florida. Picking up Chris Perry moved the Bulls from a projected 61st in 2014 to 50th, so they are getting back in position for another potential surprise NCAA run. I am mainly focusing on Rnk2 - which is your current 2014 roster minus anyone expected to go to the draft plus the average recruits you would expect based on the guys you have a chance to get. The following are the five teams who made changes since the initial post below.

Team	2014 roster	Rnk1	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	likely recr	Rnk2	Add NBA if stay	If stay	Rnk3
Kentucky	28.3	30	7	2.5	2.4	2.4			34.73	24	Noel, Goodwin, Poythress, Harrow	71.6	1
North Carolina St.	32.74	15	2.5	0.9	0	0	0		36.14	20	Brown. Leslie	48.95	14
South Carolina	26.65	38	1.6						28.25	40		28.25	45
Illinois	24.35	45	1.6	0.4					26.35	47		26.35	56
South Florida	24	49	1	0.2	0.2	0.2			26	50		26	58