Trying to figure out my Big East football preseason ballot, and there's still a ton of football previews coming out from bloggers and pundits and everyone in between. With recruiting done and the list of underclassmen in the NBA Draft finalized, I'm also finding a few Big East basketball predictions, but have yet to see one that has USF picked to finish higher than 14th.
The NBE Basketball Report has a preview up, with USF 14th, ahead of Rutgers and DePaul. "For the first time since entering the league, the Bulls may have enough to be competitive," they write. Casualhoya.com picks USF 14th, ahead of Providence and DePaul, but also thinks that Jesus Verdejo was the Bulls' best player last season.
Football previews? About.com picks USF fourth in the Big East, but with an 8-4 record, which would likely mean the Bulls beat either Florida State or Miami. Capperspicks.com picks USF to win the Big East -- can't say I've seen many preseason rankings that have West Virginia as low as fourth.
Sportsoverload.com has positional rankings in the Big East, with Matt Grothe second behind Cincy's Tony Pike, Mike Ford ninth (!) among running backs (Mo Plancher is 13th), Jessie Hester fifth and A.J. Love 13th among receivers, and USF with the league's No. 1 defense and special teams. Another blog, Pine Riders Anonymous, has USF's home game against West Virginia on Oct. 30 as the Big East's No. 1 can't-miss game.
--This week's Sporting News offers college football's top five schools at each of eight key positions, and there's only one Big East unit that makes the cut. Sorry to USF's defensive line, but it's Rutgers' offensive line that gets the nod. Same issue has a mock NBA draft, with six Big East players in the first round: Hasheem Thabeet third, Jonny Flynn 10th, DeJuan Blair 11th, Earl Clark 18th, Sam Young 29th and Terrence Williams 30th.
Times sportswriter Greg Auman, who covers USF, will post news and thoughts on the Bulletin and we invite your participation in the comments area.
That final weekend against UCONN could be very huge for both teams. The BIG EAST is smart in having about three games during that championship weekend.
Posted by: Bull Daly | June 24, 2009 at 09:27 AM
I have only one major concern for the BE and that we do well in the bowl games. For USF this is Groethe's year, no extras, no NFL if he does not get USF to at least the Gator Bowl. Selvie is an NFL lock, just not sure how high.
Posted by: Bill | June 24, 2009 at 09:06 AM
I keep trying to go through and do models on the season, and I get two teams at 5-2 and three at 4-3, where literally the difference between first and fifth comes down to the final weekend. So if you're wrong on a single game, somebody can jump three or four spots in your model.
Posted by: G.A. | June 23, 2009 at 04:21 PM
Well, 14th is progress. It's a long and extremely difficult road, but on paper, it looks like we're making progress.
Football predictions in the Big East are impossible this year. I think we'll win it all, but I'm biased. For an outsider, it's just easiest to say that Louisville and Syracuse stink, and the other 6 schools are all contenders with major question marks. Whoever answers their question correctly first will win the conference.
Posted by: David Weber | June 23, 2009 at 04:08 PM
Here is an intersting article from over on the HS blog. - http://blogs.tampabay.com/preps/2009/06/football-freedoms-tj-mutchersons-first-offer-from-north-carolina.html -I have not heard about this kid. It is funny our former Coach Douglas is after him so hard. He has us as his #1 - why havn't we offered?
Posted by: Jon | June 23, 2009 at 11:31 AM