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Big East Coast Bias Twitter Mailbag #6 - The Joy of Six

By RobertONeill31 and Christopher Novak
Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome! This is the SIXTH installment of our weekly Twitter mailbag!

Here's a consistent weekly thing where we take YOUR questions on Twitter on a week-to-week basis.

So, let's get cracking, shall we?

Robert O'Neill: Whoa, alright. There's a lot going on here, which I appreciate. Let me go rapid fire in my answers: I think Villanova could be a Final Four team, Mullin doesn't accomplish a ton on the court, but brings in a top 4 (in the conference) recruiting class, Marquette's the sleeper. If you don't want to count them because they have Henry Ellenson, Creighton's the sleeper. Kris Dunn and Henry Ellenson are your first rounders as of today.

Christopher Novak: Woo boy. Lot to be asked here.

Villanova's ceiling? I agree with my colleague here. Guard play can get you pretty far in the NCAA Tournament and I think 'Nova is Final Four caliber.

Mullin nets at best a .500 season and helps out a ton in recruiting. So, once again, out here agreeing with my colleague.

Sleeper team? Jays.

I'll say Kris Dunn and Henry Ellenson are first rounders. Geez, agreeing way too much with Rob here...

Robert O'Neill: This is interesting. The only conference tournament I've ever been to is the 2012 Big 12 Tournament, and I had tickets to the semi-finals and the finals. I almost preferred the semi-finals because of getting to see two games, but the finals were cool too, because, obviously, that's a big deal.

At the same time, though, unless you're a fan of one of the schools, the finals aren't really a big thing for a common fan. All you're seeing are two teams that are probably both NCAA Tourney locks anyway. So I think I'd pick the semis.

Christopher Novak: Way back in the day, the quarterfinals were always a terrific show. You ask me this question six or seven years ago, I go with that. Now, once again, I'm agreeing with Rob here and saying the semifinals.

Robert O'Neill: I'm not betting against Kris Dunn for anything this season, so yes.

Christopher Novak: It all depends on the matchups. To finally go contrarian, I'll say no. Kris Dunn is certainly a terrific player but he can't do everything... can he?

Robert O'Neill: Gee, however I answer this, people will get mad. Thanks Joe!

In all seriousness, here we go.

1. ACC: Duke. UNC. Louisville. Virginia. Those four alone make the ACC number one, here. I don't think we can argue.

2. Big Ten: To be honest with you, I don't love the fact that I put the Big Ten second, but it's tough not to. I'm not going to bet against Maryland, Wisconsin (even with the players they lost, they still have Nigel Hayes), Michigan State, Michigan, etc. I actually think top-to-bottom the Big Ten is better than the ACC, but the heavyweights in the ACC are better.

3. Pac-12: Arizona is one of the best teams in the country. UCLA is good. Cal has a loaded class. Utah returned mostly all of their team. Even Oregon State has a great recruiting class coming in.

4. Big 12: Kansas is still going to be Kansas, but there's a bit of uncertainty after that. Iowa State still should be alright because they're returning most of their team, Texas should be good also. Lot of question marks, though.

5. Big East: This certainly isn't a slight to the Big East. The conference is going to send, at the very least, half it's teams to the NCAA Tournament. The problem is that the teams that aren't predicted to be tourney-bound this season all look really bad.

6. SEC: Similar to last year: Kentucky, big drop, everyone else.

7. American: UConn's good. SMU still has Larry Brown. Everyone else.... not too much going on.

Christopher Novak: Oooooh. I get to disagree with Rob here!

In a particular order: ACC, Big 12, Pac-12, Big Ten, Big East, SEC, and American. I'll tremendously disagree with Rob about the SEC even if I do have it in the same place. While UK is extremely talented, there are some good teams that this conference will boast, namely Texas A&M, Vanderbilt and LSU. That said, I think they're interchangeable with the Big East and SEC and I kinda think the Big Ten is a wee bit top heavy this year. We'll see how it plays out but I think the ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12 are definitively better than the others.

Robert O'Neill: If all goes well, Butler will be a Sweet 16 team. They should have last year, but they dropped that classic game to Notre Dame. As for their strengths and weaknesses, the strengths are pretty obvious. Chris Holtmann stuck around, Kellen Dunham, Roosevelt Jones, and Andrew Chrabascz are all back. Those guys were their three leading scorers last year by far. Austin Etherington and Tyler Lewis being eligible this year will help too.

As far as a weakness... probably depth (still). They have a better bench than last year, but it's still a little too thin for my liking.

Christopher Novak: Sweet 16 is their ceiling and, with any luck, a trip to the Elite Eight is certainly not out of the question.

I do wonder about this team offensively as they aren't a supremely potent team when it comes to scoring and weren't very good at all inside the arc in the 2014-15 campaign.

Defensively, this team was very stout and there's no reason that the 'Dawgs can't be great defensively again. Remember: they ranked seventh in the country in Adjusted Defensive Efficiency, allowing just 90.4 points per 100 possessions and were one of the best teams at defending the perimeter.

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