City 6 Basketball Preview: Preseason Rankings

It’s the weekend before Halloween, which means it time to start thinking about college basketball. The season is almost upon us, so let’s preview this years City 6 teams.

1. Villanova (33-3, 16-2 in Big East)

Last season Villanova was an outstanding three point shooting team, and an outstanding defensive team.’Nova found themselves in the top 10 throughout the season. The Wildcats had  a very active bench. 8 players average 14+ minutes per game last season. Villanova was ranked 23rd in the country in PPG, 13th in APG, and 38th in field goal percentage. ‘Nova took a lot of shots, and connected on a lot of them as well. As usual, Villanova struggled rebounding the basketball, and Daniel Ochefu was their only real physical big man that they could rely on. Unfortunately, the Wildcats were live and die by the three ball. In their NCAA tourny loss to NC State, they shot only 31% from deep. Villanova lost Jayvaughn Pinkston and Dylan Ennis (transferred to Oregon), but they return Arcidiacano, Hart, Ochefu, and Jenkins, while adding a sought after freshman guard Jalen Brunson to the mix.

2. Temple (26-11, 13-5 in American)

Last season Temple got hot late and made it into the NIT tournament. They lost in the semifinals to the University of Miami. Last year, Temple ranked 28th in the nation in rebounding, but only 238th in PPG, which is atrocious. 2 of Temple’s top 3 scorers have moved on from the program since last year, including their leading scorer Will Cummings.  This year, Temple’s only real challenging non-conference games are against UNC and Wisconsin, so they will have a chance to pull off a big upset like they did last year versus Kansas.

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3.  Saint Joseph’s (13-18, 7-11 in A10)

I think St. Joe’s will take a big step forward this season. Last year the team had a lot of new faces, and really struggled following a very successful season 2 years ago. Last year their brightest spot on the team was Deandre Bembry. He averaged 17.7 PPG, and 7.7 RPG. A key factor for St. Joe’s is West Virginia transfer Aaron Brown. he was at SJU last year, but he looked out of place. This year, they’re going to need him to step it up and fit into the system well. This year the team will be more experienced, so I think they’ll have better chemsitry together, and hopefully win more games. I trust that Phil Martelli will get everything he can out of the Hawks this season.

4. La Salle (17-16, 8-10 in A10)

La Salle had a solid, yet dissapointing season last year. They were 1 game above .500, but the expectations were much higher. Many people expected a shot at the NCAA tournament. Jordan Price (transfer from Auburn) led the team in scoring with just over a 17 a game. 4 key contributors to The Explorers from last season are gone, so there will be a lot of minutes logged by relatively new faces. This year will be a rebuilding year for La Salle, as they will most likely be figuring themselves out over the course of the season. This years La Salle team could end up like last years St. Joe’s team. Expect Jordan Price, Amar Stukes, and Tony Washington to be lead contributors.

5. Drexel (11-19, 9-9 in CAA)

Drexel will look to improve this year under head coach Bruiser Flint. Drexel lost their stud Damion Lee, who transferred to Louisville. The Dragons will expect Tavon Allen to lead the squad this year, but It’ll be extremely difficult to replace Lee, who averaged 21.4 PPG last season for Drexel. Drexel has a couple key players back from injuries that kept them out last season. Kazembe Abif and Major Canady are both healthy and ready to go this year. If the Dragons can get hot late in the season, there’s a possibility they will make some noise in the CAA tourney.

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6. Penn (9-19, 4-10 in Ivy League)

Penn has a new coach in Steve Donahue. They’re looking to set a new culture, that starts with success this season. Donahue was an assistant at Penn for 10 years, but left to become the head coach at Cornell, and was also the head coach at Boston College. This year Penn brings back seniors Tony Hicks and Darien Nelson-Henry. Hicks led the team in scoring with 13.2 PPG, and Nelson-Henry led the rebounding category with only 5.1 a contest. Even though it may seem like Penn is destined for another bad season, that might not be the case. More often than not in the Ivy league the main difference in success is the quality of the coaching staff. With Donahue leading the Quakers, they could drastly improve this season.