The Daily Orange

Media Credit: Court Hathaway

NEW YORK - Jay Wright thinks it's going to be a unique year for the Big East this upcoming season. Even though his Villanova squad was picked to win the Big East by the coaches in the preseason poll, Wright doesn't expect the same level of dominance that top teams in the conference demonstrated last year.

"If we are the number one team, we're not a dominant team, we're kind of a young team," Wright said. "We got a lot of new players so if that is the best team, there are a lot of really good teams that are very close. I think we're going to see a really unique season. I think that the team that wins this league is going to have a lot of losses."

After a banner season last year that placed a record five Big East teams in the Sweet 16, Wright and his conference coaching counterparts talked of the league's transition to a more balanced conference in 2009-10 during Wednesday's Big East Media Day at Madison Square Garden.

Villanova is picked to win the league with 10 first-place votes and 218 points, just three points ahead of West Virginia.

Syracuse, who made the Big East conference championship last year, was picked sixth with 152 points.

"I think it's more balanced," Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. "It's still good teams at the top, not quite as many at the top as last year, but there's a lot of teams that are capable of getting to the top. Last year the top teams were pretty much what they thought they were going to be and I think there's a little more flexibility toward the top."

Disregarding the lack of a national championship, the Big East had arguably its greatest season as a conference last season - with only the 1985 season, featuring both Georgetown and Villanova in the national championship, as a contender. Two teams made the Final Four, five teams made the Sweet 16, and at one point in the season there were a record nine teams ranked in the top 25.

With the loss of talent to the NBA Draft, including four lottery picks, the league is certainly not as strong as it was last year. While most coaches, Marquette's Buzz Williams among them, may make the case that the Big East is still the best conference in Division I, Rick Pitino doesn't see it that way this year.

"It's like the ACC last year, its like the Big Ten last year, its like the Pac-10 last year, its not the number one conference in college basketball this year," said Pitino, whose Cardinals are picked to finish fourth. "I would venture to say the Big Ten will be. I think the Big Ten is strong this year. That doesn't mean the Big East and the ACC are down, I think they are going to be very strong."

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