Big East Basketball Power Rankings: Creighton, Georgetown emerging

Butler has been the best team in the Big East to date while soaring to the No. 10 spot in KenPom. The Dawgs are no longer a hidden commodity as they have emerged on the national stage and continue to perform at an elite level. Head coach LaVall Jordan is seriously deserving of consideration as one of the early-season favorites to win National Coach of the Year this season with how well his team has performed. Butler is deliberate and slow-paced as a unit but will rarely make mistakes and that is the most obvious reason for its 10-1 start. This team is very disciplined.

With regard to individual contributors, Kamar Baldwin is obviously the first name that comes to mind for Butler. The senior guard is absolutely phenomenal and warrants all of the attention that he receives. Fellow senior Sean McDermott, though, is almost as important to the team’s success. McDermott has always been well-known as an elite perimeter sniper but is taking his all-around game to the next level this season. Sliding down to his natural position at the “3” has obviously helped him on both ends of the floor and he is starting to be a bit more aggressive offensively.

McDermott has clearly emermged as Butler’s secondary scoring weapon next to Baldwin. Opposing defenses gameplan for his 3-point shooting as much as just about anything else in Butler’s offense. Yet, that hasn’t stopped the 6-foot-6 sharpshooter from starting this season 25-for-51 (49.0%) from beyond the arc en route to averaging 11.5 points per game. He will need to continue to be a focal point of Butler’s offense and will hopefully take more shot attempts moving forward. McDermott is practically too efficient as a scorer.

Looking ahead, Butler will round out its non-conference schedule with a neutral-site battle against Purdue before returning home to face Louisiana Monroe. If the Dawgs are able to win both of those games, they could enter conference play as the favorite in the Big East while holding a top-15 ranking nationally. Beating the Boilermakers is way easier said than done, though.

That concludes this week’s edition of the Big East power rankings. As already mentioned in the introduction, the rankings are getting even more difficult right now with so many teams tightly-packed in the middle of the league. With conference play starting up soon, though, some questions are about to be answered.

Check back next week for another version.