For the second straight year, the Wildcats are the unanimous choice in the Big East preseason poll.
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The Wildcats, who proved the coaches prophetic last season by winning their second consecutive crown with a 16-2 mark, received all nine possible first-place votes for 81 points, the conference announced at its preseason media day Wednesday in New York.
Creighton was picked fourth followed by Seton Hall.
Xavier, Georgetown, Butler, Marquette and Providence round out the preseason picks. Last season, Marquette finished ninth in the conference. The Blue Demons tallied 1,569 points in 18 conference games for an 87.2 average.
“After three seasons we remain committed to being a conference that has teams playing for the national championship”, Commissioner Val Ackerman said. VU also returns Josh Hart, who was named BIG EAST Sixth Man of the Year and won the Dave Gavitt Trophy as the Most Outstanding Player in the 2015 BIG EAST Tournament. Hrynko went on to be selected 19th overall in the WNBA Draft, while Podkowa leads a group of 11 returning letterwinners.
Senior guard Ryan Arcidiacono was asked what last year’s team will remember more, the school-record 33 wins or the three losses, the last of which was a stunner to North Carolina State in the round of 32 of the NCAA Tournament. Villanova earned a bid to the WNIT previous year where they advanced to the quarterfinal round.
Trevon Bluiett, a 6-6 sophomore guard was named All-Big East preseason honorable mention. He was third nationally in assists and fifth in steals and became the 14 player in conference history to record a triple-double in a Big East game with 27 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in a victory over DePaul.
Villanova earned 64 points and one first place vote in the preseason coaches’ poll.
Adomako is the reigning Big East freshman of the year and part of Georgetown’s entire starting lineup back for second-year coach Natasha Adair.
Butler got 67 points in the poll, and second-year coach Chris Holtmann has a returning duo in Kellen Dunham and Roosevelt Jones that averaged a combined 29.2 points per game a season ago. D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera, Georgetown, G, Sr., 6-3, 214, Indianapolis, Ind. Ryan Arcidiacono, Villanova, G, Sr., 6-3, 195, Langhorne, Pa. Jalen Reynolds, Xavier, F, Jr., 6-10, 232, Detroit, Mich. Adomako was among the league leaders in scoring and rebounding past year, boasting team-high stats in both categories.
The Big East coaches don’t think much of the locals this year.
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Providence was picked 10th as head coach Susan Robinson Fruchtl enters her fourth season. Robinson Fruchtl will be charged with filling the holes left by the graduation of her top two scorers and rebounders from the past two years.
