I Bleed Blue and White

Time for Part II of my pre-season predictions. This time I’m going after our fellow BIG EAST teams, players, and coaches. If you think I’m being too harsh, blow it out your…ya know. And I’ve got to apologize to my buddy Dave at FriarBlog. I really take some shots at Keno’s boys here.

1. Luke Harangody will be the conference’s leading rebounder.
2. Luke Harangody will be the leading scorer.
3. Luke Harangody will win Player of the Year (all 3 of those really hurt).
4. Kemba Walker will be the leader in assists.
5. Corey Stokes will be the leader in 3-pointers.
6. Greg Monroe will be the leader in blocks.
7. Stanley Robinson will be the leader in “Holy Shit, Look At What He Just Did” moments.
8. At least 2 BIG EAST head coaches will be dealt their walking papers by the end of the year.
9. Villanova, UConn, West Virginia and Pittsburgh will be the Top 4 seeds.
10. Seton Hall, Syracuse, Louisville, and Georgetown will be seeds 5-8.
11. Marquette, Notre Dame, South Florida, and Cincinnati will be seeds 9-12.
12. DePaul, Rutgers, St. John’s and Providence will be the bottom dwellers.
13. After Louisville loses to it’s first inferior opponent of the year, the Rick Pitino sex scandal will immediately resurface as a cause/effect relationship.
14. Providence will average between 78-90 points per game ALLOWED.
15. Lance Stephenson will be ejected from at least one game this season.
16. Jay Wright to the NBA talk will officially begin in February.
17. Cincinnati and Seton Hall are going to scare the shit out of teams all year.
18. South Florida will make the biggest gain in wins.
19. Providence will make the biggest gain in losses.
20. Stan Heath will win Coach of the Year.
21. Bobby Gonzalez will be loved and hated throughout the year. At the end, he’s loved.
22. I will get audible the first time Bill Raftery yells “Villanova comes out in MANAMAN!”
23. Jay Bilas will openly fawn over Dominic Cheek and Dante Taylor’s NBA upside when ‘Nova and Pitt meet.
24. The BIG EAST will once again prove it is the best, and deepest league in the country, even in a down year.
25. I will once again be unable to find a Rutgers blogger with a pulse to do a Blogger Beat with.
26. Kemba Walker and Corey Fisher will be constantly compared to each other, but only 1 will leave for the NBA.
27. The conference will put 8 teams in the NCAA Tournament.
28. 4 teams will make the Sweet Sixteen.
29. 3 will make the Elite Eight.
30. 1 will wmake the Final Four.
31. 1 will win the National Championship.

I decided a couple weeks ago that I was going to do my game predictions on a game-by-game basis. I wanted to do something else to test my Nostradamus-skills. This is Part 1, where I’ll make predictions on Villanova-related issues. We’ll revisit them at the end of the year.

Feel free to leave some comments for me if you disagree with anything I have written. I relish the adversity.

1. Scottie Reynolds will be the leading scorer.
2. Mouphtaou Yarou will be the leading rebounder.
3. Corey Fisher will lead the team in assists.
4. Maalik Wayns will lead the team in steals.
5. Reggie Redding will lead the team in FG%.
6. Maurice Sutton will lead the team in blocks.
7. Corey Stokes will lead the team in 3-pointers made.
8. Taylor King will lead the team in 3-point percentage (minimum 30 attempts).
9. Dominic Cheek will lead the freshman in minutes-per-game.
10. Villanova will finish the regular season with 3 losses in the BIG EAST.
11. Villanova will have a Top-4 seed in the BIG EAST Tourament.
12. Villanova will be a #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
13. Villanova WILL NOT lose a game at The Pavilion this season.
14. Villanova WILL lose a game at The Wachovia Center.
15. Scottie Reynolds will be on the All-BIG EAST 1st-Team.
16. Corey Fisher and Corey Stokes will be on the All-BIG EAST 2nd-Team.
17. Mouphtaou Yarou and Dominic Cheek will be on the All-BIG EAST Freshman Team.
18. Maalik Wayns will draw at least 1 comparison to Kyle Lowry every time ESPN airs a ‘Nova game.
19. Jay Wright will not be out-dressed all year.
20. The first dunk of the season will be thrown down (hard) by Mouphtaou Yarou.
21. The first alley-oop of the season will be Corey Fisher to Dominic Cheek.
22. The first 3-pointer of the season will come from Scottie Reynolds.
23. Villanova will have a 2-game losing streak at one point this season.
24. Antonio Peña won’t make us forget about Dante Cunningham, but his mid-range game will help ease the loss.
25. Dominic Cheek will lead all newcomers (King and Sutton included) in scoring this season.
26. Villanova will lose a game in the final minute this season.
27. We won’t miss Reggie Redding until we play Maryland (Greivis Vasquez comes to mind).
28. The final game with West Virginia will decide the BIG EAST regular season title.
29. Villanova once again sweeps the Big 5.
30. Villanova will win the BIG EAST Tournament.

Coming Tomorrow: 30 more predictions on the coming college basketball season.