Early Bracketology - USA Today

[Muskie91]

Muskies a 10 with Nova, GT and SH also in field.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/11/2015-ncaa-tournament-preseason-bracket

[GreatWhiteNorth]

No UC.

[Muskie]

So the Big East Champion gets a #4 seed and the next Three teams get #10 (GT and X) and Seton Hall gets #12? I find it hard to believe that there is an 6 seed difference between Villanova and GT and X.

[THRILLHOUSE]

Here is Palm's preseason bracket - http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/bracketology

(X a 9 seed vs ud and uk awaiting in the next round)

[PMI]

I am very excited to see Isaiah Whitehead. Should be interesting to see if he will be the real deal from day one and be able to lead Seton Hall to a good season. It would be pretty nice for the league if he is a big time stud and Seton Hall is good. Preseason bracketology is pretty silly though.

[xubrew]

Bracketology in November is not the least bit reliable, but I still like it. If we're going to have a top 25 this early that isn't reliable, then why not have bracketology as well?? It's fun to look at and talk about, even if it is entirely speculative.

[X-band '01]

Hopefully Seton Hall is able to keep their roster healthy - their season got off to a bad start last year when they lost at home to Fairleigh Dickinson and St. Peter's. Their notable noncon games this year include Mercer and GW at home and trips to Wichita State, GW and South Florida. Their exempt tourney this year is the Paradise Jam.

What would really help the Big East this year is to avoid having a team underachieve like Marquette did last year. You don't need to worry about Villanova, but can you completely rely on Georgetown or St. John's or even Xavier? You just hope the stinkers for X will be few and far between when Big East play rolls around.

[GoMuskies]

I'm still salty that it's Seton Hall and not Xavier visiting Charles Koch Arena December 9th.

[Caveat]

Not surprised -- with Semaj & Justin Martin gone and a lot of young players needing to step right in to roles on the team, it's going to be very much a "prove yourself" type season for Xavier.

[Olsingledigit]

SMU a 5 seed with J Mart

[ballyhoohoo]

SMU a 5 seed with J Mart

There's a lot of offensive defense going on there.

[Masterofreality]

I think that Providence is going to surprise and be the 5th Big East team in the Dance.

Ed Cooley can flat out coach and they have some very interesting pieces. Sure they will miss Cotton, but they get some very highly regarded people eligible.

Watch out for the Friars.

[drudy23]

SMU a 5 seed with J Mart

I'm sure he'll do something to screw that up.

[nasdadjr]

If X makes it my PRESEASON thoughts are that this is fairly accurate. I can see X getting off to a pretty strong start backed by lots of wins over smaller programs. Yes some of our smaller school games like Murray State probably UTEP and so forth are still quality but games X should still win. I don't see much testing before Big East play and I think Blueitt and Macura will be getting significant time and with two freshman in conference play I could see X taking some early beats and finishing maybe 2 or 3 games over .500 in conference play ( of course it wouldn't surprise me if they finish better). Weaker than our normal non conference along with a good but not great conference record probably puts us in 9 or 10 seed range. Of course if we find out that in non conference that Seton Hall wins some good games, Butler steps up and Marquette steps up in their games ( I will just assume DePaul will Fordham their way through another season) and elevates the conference ranking then those seeds could definitely change. Of course we have a whole season to play which we know nothing about so let the fun and games begin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[muskiefan82]

Here is Palm's preseason bracket - http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/bracketology

(X a 9 seed vs ud and uk awaiting in the next round)

I would love this.

Dayton, Kentucky, Ohio State, Louisville, Duke, then Arizona.

Talk about a dream path to the trophy. Beat Dayton. Beat two old coaches. Beat two local teams in UK and UL. And beat Duke too. I'm in.

[THRILLHOUSE]

Lunardi's bracket - http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology (spoiler alert, it sucks)

[muskiefan82]

He has Memphis in as an 8 seed. X will take that spot.

[xufan02]

Lunardi has UC in the dance. That is a joke right?