Five Players Exceeding Expectations in the Big East This Season
Prior to the season, I took a shot at ranking the top 40 players in the Big East for the 2022-23 season. Rather than using any sort of computer rankings, I kept the formula simple (as I wrote at the time):
This list didn’t take a scientific approach to the top 40, rather I came up with a list of about 60 players in the league and simply asked myself who was the best player of all remaining and made my way down the list. Some players lower on the list may have better statistical seasons than those ranked ahead of them, but for this exercise I aimed my focus at which players in the league will have the most impact on winning. Ultimately, a lot of this came down to “Who would you rather have?”
Of course, there are going to be some misses along the way. There are four players who didn’t crack my top 40 who have been playing terrifically this season, while a fifth has exceeded my expectations a great deal.
Which players have exceeded expectations to this point of the season? Let’s keep the list to five.
1. Souley Boum, Xavier (preseason rank: 29). 17.3 points, 4.6 assists, 3.7 rebounds, 52% shooting from 3.
Boum’s numbers at San Francisco and UTEP were hard to ignore. He had already scored 1,850 points in his career, and averaged 18.8 points per game in 2020-21 and 19.8 last season. On a team returning three proven Big East players in Zach Freemantle, Jack Nunge, and Colby Jones (all in my preseason top 25), Boum has been X’s best player.
His shooting numbers are way up. A career sub-40% shooter from the field, Boum is shooting over 50% from both the field and from three. His 52% shooting from three is the best mark in the league.
He’s the third-leading scorer in the Big East with outbursts of 28 against Georgetown, 21 versus Cincinnati, 23 against West Virginia, 23 on Duke, and 22 versus Florida.
If the season ended today, he would be 1st Team All Big East.