The Big East has been one of the top conferences for quite a while now, especially after having the back-to-back champions in the 22-23 and 23-24 seasons. Last year, they took a slight step down in top-tier quality, getting four teams into the tournament with only 1 team being higher than a seven seed, and disappointingly, that 1 team would get upset in the Round of 32.
This offseason these teams look to change that as many of them made big moves to get into contention next season. Here are the grades for all 11 teams in the Big East, solely based on their offseasons so far.
Butler Bulldogs - B
After another below average season going 15-20 and finishing 8th in the Big East head coach Thad Matta is heading into his 4th season with the Butler Bulldogs and really needs a break out season as he is only 47-53 so far during his tenure with the Bulldogs.
So far in the transfer portal coach Matta has been able to get 5 commits while losing 7 players from the previous season. Outside of Pierre Brooks, coach Matta did a good job of not letting many high-impact players walk away this offseason. With some of the commits Butler has received, they are quietly building a solid roster. Those players being Yohan Traore, a 6-11 center from SMU, Michael Ajayi, a 6-7 forward from Gonzaga who has loads of potential, Drayton Jones, a 6-9 center from South Carolina St, Jalen Jackson, a 6-2 guard from Purdue Fort Wayne, and Yame Butler, a 6-5 forward from Drexel. Coach Matta is bringing in a solid class with great size, which could definitely make for some interesting lineups.
In the high school/international scene, coach Matta was able to get four commits, with all of them being ranked between 90-185 on 247 sports. Matta was able to get some smaller players to help balance out the size from his transfer portal class. Matta was able to pick up 6-1 guard from Indianapolis, Indiana, Azavier Robinson, 6-4 forward from Durham, North Carolina, Jackson Keith, 6-8 forward from Iowa City, Iowa, Jack McCaffery, and a 6-5 forward from Toronto, Canada, Efeosa Oliogu. This class is relatively strong considering what coach Matta and the Butler program had to work with.
Coach Matta was also able to get guard Finley Bizjack to return next season. Bizjack last year posted averages of 10.3 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.4 assist, and 0.7 stocks on 44.3, 42.8, 76.0 splits. They were also able to get Jamie Kaiser Jr. to return for next season.
Overall a good offseason, being able to bring in multiple players with high potential could definitely work out for them in the long run, or it could flop on its face. Butler will probably come into next season projected to finish middle of the pack in the Big East, mostly because Thad Matta has yet to have a season where his team finished better than 8th. For Butler's standards this was a good offseason.