BIG EAST TWITTER COGNOSCENTI POLL
So I had an idea, we’ll see how this goes. A weekly Big East AP-style poll comprised of known and trusted Big East fan accounts, bloggers, podcasters, etc. We got 32 responses, but a certain Butler fan who shall remain nameless misunderstood the assignment, so I was unfortunately forced to toss his ballot, leaving 31. Having Villanova as #1 was a dead giveaway you did not understand what was happening haha.
To keep it from being a popularity contest, and in line with the official Big East Coach’s preseason poll, you could not vote for your own team. However, down the bottom there’s a “fan pulse” section for each team, where I asked each voter for the fan pulse of their team. Additionally, we voted for Big East Player of the Week, with the results below. The poll was scored 10 points for a first place vote, 9 for a 2nd, etc. on down to 1 point for 10th.
So without further adieu, here are the results of the Twitter Cognoscenti Poll, parens are first place votes, after the hyphen is total points:
UConn (25) - 276
Marquette (1) - 229
Creighton (3) - 226
St. John’s (1) - 180
Xavier - 147
Providence - 130
DePaul (1) - 90
Georgetown - 78
Villanova - 66
Butler - 64
Seton Hall - 54
Given the structure of the poll, we’ll never have a truly unanimous number 1, as that team’s fans would have to vote for someone else, but even still, UConn fell 3 votes short of first place. Those votes went to Creighton, Marquette, and…DePaul?! I’ll allow it!
Player of the Week:
Ryan Kalkbrenner (1st) - 20/32 votes
The man, the myth, the legend: Cockbrenner
Not even remotely shocking to see Cockbrenner win Player of the Week from our panel. The man dropped a double double on UTRGV. And you might say, so what? It’s UTRGV…well if you haven’t heard, this wasn’t just any double-double…Cockbrenner dropped 49 points on UTRGV on 20/22 shooting…yes 91% shooting. He was 2/2 from deep, 7/8 from the stripe. He had 11 boards, and added 3 blocks for good measure. He followed that up with a “mediocre” performance, dropping 24 & 7, with 3 blocks once again versus FDU. He was once again a perfect 1/1 from deep, and a perfect 5/5 from the stripe. 9/10 from the field to shoot 90% once again. For those keeping score at home, Cockbrenner’s average this week was:
36 .5/8.5/1.5 and 3 blocks per game, 0.5 fouls per game, shooting 90.6/100/92.3.
There was a decent chance Cockbrenner could’ve crossed the 40-pt threshold again in the FDU game, but given it was non-competitive, he only played 23 minutes (vs. 36 in the UTRGV game).
Don’t ask Cockbrenner how he does it. You don’t wanna know.
Never mind that UTRGV starts a 6’8” freshman from Mongolia at center, and spells him wit h a 6’9” Australian sophomore that is listed as a forward, not a center. Or that FDU has 1 player over 6’7”, and he only played 7 minutes…do not worry about that. Do not ask how Cockbrenner does what he does. Do not ask why every ref in America is afraid to call fouls against Cockbrenner. Pay no attention to the big man behind the curtain, that is none your concern.
This doofy looking mofo?!
Others receiving votes (total): Alex Karaban (3); Jacob Meyer (2); RJ Luis (2); Jerome Hunter (1); Kam Jones (1); idk (1); “Gus Bus” I assume Gus Yalden? lol (1)
Fan Pulse:
(average score of responses by fans of that team 1-10 scale)
UConn - 8
Marq - 8.5
Creighton - 6.5
St. John’s - 8.5
Xavier - 6
Providence - 5.5
Depaul - 6
Georgetown - 7
Villanova - 3
Butler - 2
Seton Hall - 1
A lot of confidence from 3 of the top-4 teams in the poll. Surprisingly tepid pulse from Creighton. Georgetown fans irrationally confident after beating ::checks notes:: Lehigh by 8 and Fairfield by 12…go off Hoya fans. Been awhile since you could feel this good about your team!
We’ll bring this to you weekly on Mondays, as my schedule permits. But hopefully every week this season. We may try and curate the list a little more, try to get something closer to equal participation by the fanbases, maybe 5 folks per fan base. If you’re interested and you have an account with more than 2,500 followers, a podcast, or a blog of your own, reach out and let me know your interest.