College Hoops

Big East expert picks 2022-23: Bold predictions, most overrated and underrated teams, top players

Big East expert picks 2022-23: Bold predictions, most overrated and underrated teams, top players


No league has a more notable collection of coaching turnover than the Big East. There are four new faces in familiar places, these men returning to schools where they previously spent a significant period of their basketball careers. 

The biggest departure is obviously Jay Wright, whose shocking retirement in April at 60 years old left college basketball without its anticipated consummate replacement to Mike Krzyzewski. Wright’s successor is Kyle Neptune, who took over a two-win Fordham program and got the Rams to 16-16 in his only season. Neptune, 37, was a VU assistant from 2013-21. 

Wright’s retirement was the biggest news of the offseason in the Big East, but the biggest hiring from a noise-making standpoint was Sean Miller’s return to Xavier. When Miller coached at Xavier from 2004-09, the Muskies were an A-10 program and had a 120-47 record. The expectation is for Miller to eventually coach Xavier to its first Final Four.

For as big as the Miller hiring was, Seton Hall inking alum Shaheen Holloway — fresh off Saint Peter’s Cinderella Elite Eight run — was regarded by those in the coaching profession as the best addition of the 2022 carousel. Holloway is one of the best players in Seton Hall history. And from 2010-18, he was an assistant at his alma mater before taking the Peacocks job. Now look at him. What a story. 

The Big East’s coaching carousel was so strong, the “quietest” hiring of the four may someday be regarded as the best of them all. Thad Matta and his .740 career winning percentage bests all others. The Butler alumnus is back at BU, where he was an assistant for three years (1997-2000) and then the head coach for one (’00-01). This will be Butler’s 10th season in the Big East. Its average finish in the league ledger the past nine seasons: sixth. All things considered, that’s acceptable. Butler was a Horizon League program a decade ago. It’s done well for itself. The hope is Matta moves the Bulldogs into the top half of the conference almost every single season of his second run there, however long that lasts. Matta left Ohio State in 2017 because of health issues related to his drop foot. But he’s only 55. There’s a chance this could last a good while. 

It’s an exciting time in the Big East, and even though Wright is gone, you can make the argument that the collective coaching from top to bottom is stronger than it’s ever been since the…

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