Busting Brackets
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Big East Basketball: Ranking conference’s top position groups for 2019-20

By Brian Foley

PHILADELPHIA, PA - JANUARY 27: Myles Powell #13 of the Seton Hall Pirates dribbles the ball against Jermaine Samuels #23 of the Villanova Wildcats in the first half at the Wells Fargo Center on January 27, 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - JANUARY 27: Myles Powell #13 of the Seton Hall Pirates dribbles the ball against Jermaine Samuels #23 of the Villanova Wildcats in the first half at the Wells Fargo Center on January 27, 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 08: Jacob Epperson #41 of the Creighton Bluejays reacts in the first half against the Providence Friars during the Big East basketball tournament Quarterfinals at Madison Square Garden on March 8, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Lawrie/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 08: Jacob Epperson #41 of the Creighton Bluejays reacts in the first half against the Providence Friars during the Big East basketball tournament Quarterfinals at Madison Square Garden on March 8, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Lawrie/Getty Images) /

Who has the best centers in Big East Basketball? Does Markus Howard or Myles Powell have more backcourt help? We ranked each team’s rotation of guards, wings, and big men.

Dissecting Big East Basketball this season is not for the faint of heart.

As Villanova hits a point of semi-transition, Creighton ponders an all-point guard lineup, and Marquette attempts to neuter Markus Howard’s stardom by using Theo John as a power forward, the opportunity is there for over half the conference to make a serious run at the league title.

To make your Big East predictions easier (or possibly tougher), we broke each team into three distinct roles – guard rotations, wing rotations, and big man rotations – and ranked them against their positional peers. This is a quick and dirty way to decipher the true talent that lies on each roster.

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Here is the average ranking for each team across all three areas:

  • Providence: 4.0
  • Xavier: 4.3
  • Marquette: 4.3
  • Villanova: 4.7
  • Seton Hall: 5.3
  • Georgetown: 5.3
  • Creighton: 5.7
  • Butler: 6.0
  • St. John’s: 7.3
  • DePaul: 8.0

This isn’t a tried-and-true power rankings. Coaching is not taken into account – Jay Wright will still probably take the fourth-most talented team to a conference championship – nor is a team’s position of weakness masked by their position of strength. Could Creighton’s overwhelming guard depth make up for its thin frontcourt? Of course! But here, that lacking big man rotation drags down the entire roster’s average ranking.

Still, this is a handy tool to establish proper tiers within the conference, as well as find surprises across the league. I didn’t even know I liked Providence’s talent so much, but here the Friars are, perched atop these rankings (I still believe PC’s guard play will limit its overall success, but there is no denying the impressive crop of wings and bigs Ed Cooley has collected). While there seems to be a clear hierarchy at the bottom of the conference, the top-seven teams are all tightly packed.

Here is the full ranking of each Big East positional rotation, replete with key names, role players, and a scouting report for every team.

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