Big East Men’s Basketball Preview: Is UConn in Position For Three-Peat?

On paper, this conference should send at least five and possibly more teams to the Big Dance this season.

UConn forward Alex Karaban returns to the Huskies, who are the top Big East season this season. / Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

As part of its 2024–25 men’s basketball preseason coverage, Sports Illustrated is rolling out previews for the five high-major conferences, plus the top mid-majors nationally. Previously: ACC. Next up is the Big East.

Four of the last eight national championships belong to the Big East, with two each for UConn and Villanova. And with a new TV deal locked in and UConn going nowhere after interest from the Big 12, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the league’s future. In the present, the focus is upping last season’s NCAA tournament bid total, which settled at just three after Selection Sunday snubs for Providence, Seton Hall and St. John’s. Much of that can be explained by the bid-stealer chaos of last season’s championship week, but a repeat of a number even close to that would be a bad sign for the league moving forward. The good news: On paper, this is a conference that should send at least five and possibly more teams to the Big Dance this season. Here’s how Sports Illustrated breaks down the league in the preseason. 

SI’s Picks For … 

Player of the Year: Kam Jones, Marquette

Breakout Player: Simeon Wilcher, St. John’s

Newcomer of the Year: Liam McNeeley, UConn

Dark Horse Team: St. John’s

All-Conference First Team

• Kadary Richmond, St. John’s
• Kam Jones, Marquette
• Alex Karaban, UConn
• Eric Dixon, Villanova
• Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton

1. UConn Huskies

At this point, we’ve all heard the remarkable numbers behind UConn’s two-year stretch of dominance. Can the Huskies do it again? Getting Alex Karaban to turn down being a likely draft pick in the NBA to spend another year in Storrs was a great start, as was adding five-star wing Liam McNeeley to play next to Karaban. How the Huskies manufacture offense in the backcourt is a big question, with Saint Mary’s transfer Aidan Mahaney and sophomore Solomon Ball competing for big roles replacing Cam Spencer. There’s also the question of the center position, where last season’s backup, Samson Johnson, should get every opportunity to start with Michigan transfer Tarris Reed Jr. behind him. Dan Hurley’s ability to develop players and put them in positions to succeed is elite, and because of that, this group has a chance at a third title in a row. But actually getting to that finish line may be even harder than what the Huskies pulled off a year ago. 

2. Creighton Bluejays

The team with the best chance of challenging the two-time defending national champs in the Big East is Creighton. Ryan Kalkbrenner is back for a fifth year and should push for All-American honors thanks to his ability to protect the rim and finish around the basket. Texas Tech transfer Pop Isaacs should help the Bluejays replace Baylor Scheierman and Trey Alexander given his ability to score the basketball, and international addition Fedor Žugić could be a high-impact piece on the wing assuming he’s eventually cleared by the NCAA. This group has plenty of shooting and one of the top bigs in the country, and that combination is enough to give the Bluejays a chance at a special season. 

3. Xavier Musketeers

Few teams had a better offseason than Xavier, as the Musketeers loaded up on transfer talent while retaining a few huge pieces. I’m bullish on point guard Dayvion McKnight in his second year in the Musketeers' system, and transfer wings Ryan Conwell (Indiana State) and Dante Maddox Jr. (Toledo) are elite shot makers on the perimeter to pair with him. If Zach Freemantle looks like himself after missing over a year due to a pair of foot surgeries, this group has second weekend and maybe even Final Four upside. 

4. Marquette Golden Eagles

Marquette under Shaka Smart is all-in on player development. The Golden Eagles didn’t bring in a single transfer in the offseason for a second straight year despite losing two NBA draft picks this spring. Kam Jones is a proven star to anchor the offense, but this group’s ceiling is dictated by the growth of role players like Chase Ross and Ben Gold into high-impact starters. Also worth watching is how Smart handles the point guard position: Jones could take on more ballhandling reps, or Smart could turn to sophomore Tre Norman while waiting for Sean Jones to recover from a season-ending knee injury a year ago.  

Jones is a proven start who will anchor the Marquette offense this season. / Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

5. St. John’s Red Storm

This is one of the more interestingly constructed rosters at the high-major level. Rick Pitino landed two of the top point guards in the transfer portal in Kadary Richmond (Seton Hall) and Deivon Smith (Utah), which has a chance to be an elite defensive backcourt unit. But neither is a significant threat from beyond the arc, and SJU’s presumed starting small forward in RJ Luis Jr. is also not much of a three-point shooter. Can Simeon Wilcher and Brady Dunlap bring enough shooting off the bench to provide requisite spacing in the halfcourt? 

6. Providence Friars

Bryce Hopkins’s brutal ACL tear in January was the biggest reason the Friars came up just short of an NCAA tournament bid in Kim English’s first year on the job. Hopkins should return early this season, and if he showcases his old form, he’ll be one of the best players in the Big East. Surrounding him is an interesting roster with tons of depth. Watch out for a three-headed frontcourt monster featuring Christ Essandoko (St. Joe’s), elite freshman Oswin Erhunmwunse and junior-college transfer Anton Bonke, while transfers Bensley Joseph (Miami) and Wesley Cardet Jr. (Chicago State) give returning point guard Jayden Pierre help in the backcourt. 

7. Butler Bulldogs

The train came off the tracks late for Butler after a promising start to Big East play, crippled by a five-game losing skid in mid-February that knocked them out of serious NCAA tournament contention. Keeping the team’s top two scorers from a year ago in Pierre Brooks and Jahmyl Telfort was huge, but there will be plenty of new faces around him. Questions at point guard and center are never a good thing, and Butler doesn’t have a clear answer at either spot. A breakout year from talented young guard Finley Bizjack would be huge in quieting some of the ballhandling concerns. 

8. Villanova Wildcats

The pressure is on for Kyle Neptune to get Villanova back to the NCAA tournament after missing the Dance in his first two seasons replacing Jay Wright. While vibes for much of the offseason seemed awful after some key portal and draft departures, Neptune did stick the landing, getting Eric Dixon back for a fifth year and adding a high-level wing scorer in Wooga Poplar (Miami). Villanova’s offense has been mediocre in two seasons under Neptune after consistently being among the nation’s elite under Wright, and that has to change this year for the Wildcats to exceed expectations and save Neptune’s job.

The pressure is on Neptune this season at Villanova. / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

9. Seton Hall Pirates

The Pirates were gutted in the transfer portal, losing stars Kadary Richmond (St. John’s) and Dre Davis (Ole Miss). In all, the Hall returns just one player who averaged more than a point per game, role-playing wing Dylan Addae-Wusu. Shaheen Holloway pieced together a new roster with portal adds from all walks of college basketball in response; I’m highest on former elite recruit Scotty Middleton (Ohio State) and veteran scoring guard Chaunce Jenkins (Old Dominion). Holloway’s teams always play incredibly hard and stout defensively, the question is just whether they can be consistent enough on the offensive end to punch a ticket to the Big Dance. 

10. Georgetown Hoyas

Ed Cooley’s first year with the Hoyas didn’t go as planned, a 23-loss campaign that featured an 0–18 mark against non-DePaul Big East foes. Incremental progress should be the expectation here: Jayden Epps is back as one of the Big East’s top scorers, and he gets help in the backcourt in the form of dynamic Harvard transfer Malik Mack. TCU transfer Micah Peavy should give the Hoyas defense some teeth, but a lot rides on the center spot, where Cooley will rely heavily on a pair of unproven options in freshmen Thomas Sorber and Julius Halaifonua. Both Sorber and Halaifonua project as high-major starters in time, but they’ll be thrown into the fire more than most freshmen bigs after Georgetown struck out on a few top portal targets up front. There’s a lot of young talent here though, and if Cooley can retain it, I’d bet on this nucleus eventually getting the Hoyas back to the NCAA tournament. 

11. DePaul Blue Demons

Even by DePaul standards, last season was a calamity. The Demons’ 3–29 campaign led to the midseason dismissal of Tony Stubblefield and will go down as one of the worst seasons by a high-major team in a long time. New coach Chris Holtmann was about as good a hire as anyone around the program could have hoped for, with experience recruiting and winning at a high level in the Big East from his time at Butler. Talent-wise, this group belongs at the bottom of the league, but Holtmann did put an emphasis on adding shooting and experience with his reshaped roster, moves that should pay dividends and give the Blue Demons a chance to be far more competitive this season than they were a year ago.