No league has a more notable collection of coaching turnover than the Big East. There are four new faces in familiar places, these men returning to schools where they previously spent a significant period of their basketball careers.
The biggest departure is obviously Jay Wright, whose shocking retirement in April at 60 years old left college basketball without its anticipated consummate replacement to Mike Krzyzewski. Wright’s successor is Kyle Neptune, who took over a two-win Fordham program and got the Rams to 16-16 in his only season. Neptune, 37, was a VU assistant from 2013-21.
Wright’s retirement was the biggest news of the offseason in the Big East, but the biggest hiring from a noise-making standpoint was Sean Miller’s return to Xavier. When Miller coached at Xavier from 2004-09, the Muskies were an A-10 program and had a 120-47 record. The expectation is for Miller to eventually coach Xavier to its first Final Four.
For as big as the Miller hiring was, Seton Hall inking alum Shaheen Holloway — fresh off Saint Peter’s Cinderella Elite Eight run — was regarded by those in the coaching profession as the best addition of the 2022 carousel. Holloway is one of the best players in Seton Hall history. And from 2010-18, he was an assistant at his alma mater before taking the Peacocks job. Now look at him. What a story.
The Big East’s coaching carousel was so strong, the “quietest” hiring of the four may someday be regarded as the best of them all; Thad Matta and his .740 career winning percentage tops all others. The Butler alumnus is back at BU, where he was an assistant for three years (1997-2000) and then the head coach for one (’00-01). This will be Butler’s 10th season in the Big East. Its average finish in the league ledger the past nine seasons: sixth. All things considered, that’s acceptable — Butler was a Horizon League program a decade ago. It’s done well for itself. The hope is Matta moves the Bulldogs into the top half of the conference almost every single season of his second run there, however long that lasts. Matta left Ohio State in 2017 because of health issues related to drop foot. But he’s only 55. There’s a chance this could last a good while.
It’s an exciting time in the Big East, and even though Wright is gone, you can make the argument that the collective coaching from top to bottom is stronger than it’s ever been since the league reformed in 2013.
CBS Sports Big East Preseason Player of the Year
Ryan Kalkbrenner | C | Creighton
It might be that no league has a tougher toss-up for preseason POY honors than the Big East. Because Kalkbrenner (13.1 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 2.6 bpg in ’21-22) is such a good defender, he gets our nod. Add in that Creighton is the projected top team, and it’s all the more practical. If Creighton’s junior man in the middle continues to expand his game, he could blossom into a top-15 player in the sport by March. The Jays were a surprise NCAA tourney team last season and it was because Greg McDermott had his best defensive team ever; Kalkbrenner was and will remain the focal point of Creighton’s remade resistance.
Four more players to watch
Adama Sanogo | C | UConn: The Huskies’ top player heading into the season is the 6-foot-9, 245-pound Malian man in the middle. Sanogo (14.8 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 1.9 bpg) will be tasked with upping his output after UConn lost more than 65% of its points and rebounds production from last season’s squad.
Colby Jones | SF | Xavier: Here’s your Big East POY dark horse candidate. Jones plays the 3 but will also be used at the 4. The most versatile guy on Xavier’s roster — and the top defender. He’s lauded for his decision-making and he understands how to play in space and play off X’s bigs. He averaged 11.6 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.5 steals and just 2.2 fouls in 33.5 minutes.
Posh Alexander | PG | St. John’s: Alexander rates as one of the best defensive guards in the nation. The Red Storm are coming off a directionless 17-15 season, but Alexander wasn’t responsible for that. He averaged 13.8 points, 5.5 assists, 4.4 rebounds, 2.3 steals and fewer than two fouls.
Jared Bynum | PG | Providence: The Friars lost more production off their roster than any other Big East NCAA Tournament team. But Bynum’s back. Because of that, his numbers are expected to creep up. Last season: 12.2 ppg, 4.0 apg, 27.6 mpg. Ed Cooley will need his veteran floor general to become an all-league player if Providence wants to make back-to-back Big Dances.
CBS Sports Big East Preseason Freshman of the Year
Cam Whitmore | SF | Villanova
Whitmore is one of Villanova’s highest-rated recruits ever. He was No. 11 in his class, according to 247Sports. He’s objectively the most talented newcomer in the league. Question is: When will we see him? Whitmore recently had thumb surgery. Villanova announced he will not be ready to start the season. The hope is he’ll be available by the time Villanova plays on Thanksgiving weekend for the loaded PK85 Invitational bracket. Whitmore is a smooth wing who projects as a lottery pick. If he goes one-and-done, he’ll be Villanova’s first freshman drafted since Tim Thomas in 1997.
CBS Sports Big East predicted order of finish
Big East’s most overrated team
Creighton
It’s all relative here. Creighton was a No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament and finished 50th in KenPom.com, 51st at BartTorvik.com. You’ll see that some other preseason projections will have Creighton in the top 10. That’s not illogical, but I find it a tougher sell in the context of the Big East and given how strong other potential top-10 schools look. It would be a shock if Creighton wasn’t a top-three team in the Big East, but it’s far from automatic that this group will breeze to the top seed in the Big East Tournament.
Big East’s most underrated team
St. John’s
In more than two decades of being a head coach, Mike Anderson is yet to finish a season below .500. That trend will continue in ’22-23. The Big East seems to have a clear-cut top four teams in Creighton, Nova, X and UConn. But I can’t shake the feeling the conference will have some disarray on the ledger. I’ll say St. John’s peels off a couple of big upsets after the calendar flips to January and makes the NCAAs in March.
