Big East Basketball: 5 biggest questions entering 2019 NCAA Tournament

5.  The Big East is known for creating household names in the Big Dance. Who’ll it be this year?

Brian Foley

Sam Hauser. The top-four guards in the conference – Markus Howard, Powell, Booth, and Ponds – are all pretty well known commodities, and Paschall was a key cog on last year’s national title team. Hauser is perennially underrated, but he is the crucial second banana next to Howard. The 6-foot-8 junior averaged 14.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per game this year, and is the nation’s top three-point shooter over the last three seasons (min. 400 attempts).

Zac Voynow

Myles Powell and Shamorie Ponds will be household names across the country, if they’re not already. Everyone already knows Phil Booth, but Eric Paschall will be on the front page of papers and his draft stock will soar by the time this tournament is all said and done.

Connor Hope

Obviously Markus Howard is the clear choice, with Shamorie ponds being an option if St. John’s makes a run. But I like Phil Booth to make a huge impact and make people question his relative lack of coverage. The dude is averaging 19 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, and nobody is even giving him a second thought. Booth has helped Nova win two National Championships, and while I don’t believe they win again, his experience will show in March.

Marcus Washington

This was a toss up between two Villanova players. Sophomore Jermaine Samuels or freshman Saddiq Bey could fall into this category but I’m going to go with Samuels. His minutes have been 30+ over the last six games and he’s taken advantage of it.

During that stretch he’s averaging 13.8 points and 8.5 rebounds. If he stays out of foul trouble, he can be the difference for a Villanova team that doesn’t have the leeway that it had last season.