The Big East were the sportsbook darlings of last year, sending seven teams to the NCAA Tournament, including three No.1 seeds. It should be another crazy year in the Big East, and even though a number of stars have left, there\u2019s still an abundance of talent, and arguably the best group of coaches in the country.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how it\u2019ll all break down.<\/p>\n
Villanova Wildcats<\/strong><\/p>\n Odds To Win The Big East: +285<\/p>\n The Wildcats went all the way to the Final Four before falling to eventual champion North Carolina, and they got a big boost when guard Scottie Reynolds chose to come back for his senior year. Reynolds is a scoring point guard who can get hot in a hurry, while Corey Fisher and Corey Stokes are also guards that can fill the hoop. The Wildcats, ranked fifth in the preseason polls, will have to replace Dante Cunningham and Dwayne Anderson, but there\u2019s young talent at the forward position. Expect the Wildcats to run when making a sports bet online.<\/p>\n West Virginia Mountaineers<\/strong><\/p>\n Odds To Win The Big East: +350<\/p>\n The Mountaineers will be hungry after getting eliminated by Dayton in the first round of the Tournament, and they\u2019re ranked eighth in the preseason polls. The forward duo of Da\u2019Sean Butler and Devin Ebanks can compete with anyone in the country, and Darryl \u201cTruck\u201d Bryant will have a lot to prove after an offseason suspension. The x-factor could be Casey Mitchell, a two guard recruited by coach Bob Huggins when Huggins was at Cincinnati. Mitchell went to junior college before joining Huggins, and the Moutaineers could be one of the sleeper sports picks<\/a> come March.<\/p>\n Connecticut Huskies<\/strong><\/p>\n Odds To Win The Big East: +350<\/p>\n You don\u2019t just lose guys like A.J. Price, Hasheem Thabeet and Jeff Adrien and expect life to go on\u2026.do you? At UConn, it doesn\u2019t matter. The Huskies are ranked 12th in the preseason polls, and Kemba Walker is expected to take over for Price after a brilliant freshman year. Stanley Robinson correctly chose to come back to school and should be an impact player. The main questions will be up front, where Thabeet and Adrien ruled. Gavin Edwards and Ater Majok will be expected to step up.NCAA football picks<\/a>. Louisville Cardinals<\/strong><\/p>\n Odds To Win The Big East: +350<\/p>\n Coach Rick Pitino is as happy as anyone to get the season going after a hectic offseason filled with extortion plots, but his Cardinals are still 19th in the polls. Replacing Earl Clark and Terrance Williams won\u2019t be easy, but Samardo Samuels and Terrence Jennings have the ability to do that. The key will be in the backcourt, and everyone is still waiting for Edgar Sosa to become the star that he looked to be as a freshman. Now a senior, Pitino will lean on the point guard, and he has to prove he can be consistent. If you\u2019re looking to bet sports<\/a>, don\u2019t count out the Cardinals\u2026ever.<\/p>\n Notre Dame Fighting Irish<\/strong><\/p>\n Odds To Win The Big East: +500<\/p>\n The Fighting Irish may have had the coup of the offseason when Luke Harangody decided to go the Tyler Hansbrough route and come back for his senior year. The big forward is now a preseason All-American, and a return of 22 points and 10 boards is a minimum expectation. The Irish will have to replace sharpshooter Kyle McAlarney, but speaking of Hansbrough, his younger brother Ben transferred over from Mississippi State to give the Irish a shooter to open up the floor for Harangody. Scott Martin, a Purdue transfer, hurt his knee and will miss the season, so point guard Tory Martin may be asked to score more.<\/p>\n 2009 Big East Pick<\/strong><\/p>\n You know it\u2019s deep when Georgetown, rated at +800, doesn\u2019t even get a mention. These are the five that will battle it out in the Big East, and UConn and Louisville have a lot to replace, so they may be a year away, despite their coaches. Notre Dame has to prove it can hit the outside shot to give Harangody some room, so we\u2019re reserving judgment on them. That leaves West Virginia and Villanova, and the Wildcats don\u2019t have the depth and balance that the Moutaineers do.<\/p>\n Take West Virginia in your online betting picks this year.<\/p>\n Our man Poolside Rants weighs in with his 2009 Big East basketball predictions and points out last year the Big East sent seven teams to the NCAA Tournament, including three No.1 seeds. It should be another crazy year in the Big East…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1415],"tags":[41,19612,19613,19614,14153,19615,4207,4633,19603,4657,11924,19601,4691,1028,19604],"class_list":["post-15340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-41","tag-2009-big-east-basketball-predictions","tag-2009-big-east-basketball-preview","tag-2009-big-east-conference-preseason-picks","tag-big-east-conference","tag-big-east-mens-basketball","tag-college-basketball-betting","tag-college-basketball-picks","tag-conference-odds","tag-ncaa-hoops","tag-ncaa-hoops-picks","tag-ncaa-picks","tag-ncaab-predictions","tag-predictions","tag-team-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15340"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109756,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15340\/revisions\/109756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Sports](\"http:\/\/www.bodogaffiliate.com\/resources\/banners\/sportsbook\/square\/250x250\/250x250g-sportsbook.gif\")
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