With just three First Team all-conference players returning, things could get wild in the league this season.
Hello and welcome back to FALL SPORTS PREVIEW KICKOFF!
We’ve already taken a swing at figuring out Big East women’s soccer preseason awards for the fall of 2024, and if you haven’t gone through that yet, run over here and check it out!
Today we’re going to be looking at men’s soccer in the Big East this year. Just like last year, it’s a 12 team league with Akron as an affiliate member, and that splits the league up into two six-team divisions.
As always, I’m trying to figure out what the coaches will put on their ballots, so previous ballots — especially last year’s end of season awards — are very prominent in my attempt here. We’ll do a preseason Player of the Year for both offense and defense as well as tab the best goalkeeper in the league heading into the season. I’ll give you an 11 man preseason all-Big East team, and I’ll take a stab at picking which six teams — three from each division — will qualify for the conference tournament at the end of the year.
Okay, let’s go!
Preseason Offensive Player of the Year: Scott Testori, Connecticut
There’s a certain amount of shooting around in the dark here. There are just three players returning from last year’s all-conference teams at the end of the regular season. The top four point scorers and goal scorers from 2023 are gone now. And so, we turn to Testori, who finished last season with 20 points, fifth best in the Big East both overall and on a per-match basis. He was also #5 on the goals list, but he’s the top returning scorer, and that makes him the best returning offensive player in the Big East and thus the guy who gets the headline here.
Preseason Defensive Player of the Year: Markel Rasheed, Xavier
When you’re the only defender returning from the postseason all-conference team, you get to be the preseason DPOY the following year. I don’t make the rules here, people, it’s just logic. I will noted that a Georgetown player has been postseason DPOY for six straight years, and that definitely means the coaches could just throw whatever Hoya defender in here because it’ll probably be right when we get to the end of October.
Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year: Alec McLachlan, St. John’s
I’m calling an audible from my usual position of “best returning guy on last year’s all-conference team gets it” for this one. That would be Providence’s Lukas Burns, who was the Second Team GK last season behind Georgetown’s Ryan Schewe on the First Team. However, McLachlan — who was a Third Team honoree — had Burns beat in both goals-against average and save percentage last season. Yes, there’s more to netminding than just stats, and yes, sometimes goals-against average is misleading depending on the field defense in front of the keeper. But we’re going to lean into a guy who stopped nearly 72% of shots on goal instead of a guy who stopped less than 68% of the same shots.
Preseason All-Big East Team
Palmer Ault, F, Butler
Macoumba Ba, F, St. John’s
Diego Batista, M, Providence
Jonas Buechte, D, Akron
Jackson Castro, M, Creighton
Dylan Kropp, D, Xavier
Alec McLachlan, GK, St. John’s
Markel Rasheed, D, Xavier
Martin Tabora, M, Georgetown
Scott Testori, F, UConn
Nicolas Tomerius, M, UConn
Free passes onto the list for Testori, Rasheed, and McLachlan, of course, as they have to be part of the top 11 if they’re the best guys in their respective departments. Ault and Ba go straight in to round out the forward position, as they were Second Team guys last season and join Testori as the only all-conference forwards returning. FUN FACT: St. John’s says Macoumba Ba is a forward, but the Big East marked him as a midfielder in last year’s postseason awards. WEIRD! I’m going to take STJ’s word for this because it makes my life easier.
Castro and Tabora join Rasheed as the only returning First Team players, so that’s an easy add. That got me to seven, and some subtle management moved things through to 11. I added in Tomerius and Batista as Second Team midfielders last season, and then went with Buechte and Kropp as returning Second Team defenders in the back end. That did leave me with one Second Team guy from last season left off this year’s Preseason all-BE list: Akron’s Malik Henry. Here’s why: The Big East had him as a defender on the honors, but the Zips say he’s a midfielder/forward. Confusing!
One guy who did not make the list but I noticed as returning while settling out the Buechte/Henry roster thing: Akron’s Dyson Clapier. He was a MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List guy heading into the 2023 season, but then he followed up a 21 point junior year with eight starts in just 12 appearances and just six total points. He’s back for a bonus season of eligibility, and if he’s back to his 2022 form, he could absolutely cause a radical shift in how these all-conference awards go in the postseason versions.
Top Teams
East Division
1 — Georgetown
2 — UConn
3 — St. John’s
Midwest Division
1 — Xavier
2 — Creighton
3 — Akron
The Midwest was a little easier to deal with than the East Division. Xavier’s defense seems to have an edge on things with Rasheed and Kropp, and on top of that, there was a clear haves and have-nots dividing line in that division a year ago. Maybe that changes in 2024 — Marquette has a new coach! — but we’ll stick with last year’s top three heading back to those spots in the Midwest.
In the East, I don’t have a great stance for picking Georgetown at #1 other than “they’re Georgetown, dammit.” I went with UConn at the #2 with Scott Testori as the Preseason Offensive Player of the Year and St. John’s gets to be #3 since they have McLachlan representing them with that Preseason Goalkeeper honor. With so much of the top end talent in the league turning over from last season, it’s kind of hard to say anything for sure one way or another other than “I bet the good teams are going to keep being good.”