Alright, I just said this wouldn’t be exclusively be a Seton Hall thrashing. What about the other two? Despite fitting the same set of criteria, Colorado and VCU aren’t getting the same kind of adoration. Why is that?

For the Buffaloes, it’s likely due to a lack of comparable success last year. The Pirates nearly won the Big East Tournament, narrowly succumbing to Villanova, and made the NCAA Tournament as a 10-seed, falling to the scalding-hot shooting of Wofford in Round 1. Colorado, meanwhile, crashed out in the quarterfinals of the NIT and generally did not distinguish themselves in the pitiful Pac 12. Still, though, the Buffs dealt with injuries (including lead guard McKinley Wright playing through a shoulder injury for the last three months of the year), and were statistically quite close to Seton Hall.

VCU makes a little less sense. They return all of the most important pieces from one of the country’s best defenses and made the NCAA Tournament themselves, albeit also losing in Round 1 (to Tacko and the UCF boys). They even finished ~20 spots higher than Seton Hall in computer rankings (18 at KenPom, 24 at BartTorvik). The difference? I think it’s twofold: they didn’t beat Kentucky on national TV in December (an excellent Gus Game), and they don’t sport an electric shot-maker like Powell to command attention (and they’re in the A-10).

This is not to say either or both teams should be ranked – again, the data says two or even three of these teams will end up outside the top 25. Instead, it’s surprising to see how everyone has unanimously settled on Seton Hall to be the one to buck that trend. The Pirates have the potential to repeat 2010 Maryland’s leap – Powell is an anthropomorphic fireball, and FSU transfer Ikey Obiagu could be a major difference-maker in the paint – but it’s just as likely (or possibly even more likely) that, like so many teams before them, there’s just not enough internal improvements to be made, especially considering how much better the rest of the Big East has gotten around them.