We start off the old year with our first edition of the new Big East Power Rankings. What better way to say goodbye to 2010 than to look ahead at the conference season ahead. It’s a been a pretty good out-of-conference season for the Big East. There weren’t many bad losses to really wretch about except for Tennessee’s sweep of Pittsburgh and Villanova. But those aren’t that bad because the Vols are a very good team, although a bit schizophrenic.

But on the whole the conference has been pretty dominant so far. There are five teams in the Top-10. Three teams still undefeated. Five teams with just one loss. And Providence has been surprising at 11-2 with Marshon Brooks breaking out and that’s not to mention that Keno Davis received a huge commitment in 2012 stud Ricky Ledo.

Sure there have been a few disappointments. Seton Hall has really struggled after Jeremy Hazell went down (maybe for the season) and blew back to back games against Dayton and Richmond with second half collapses. St. John’s lost to St. Bonaventure, which doesn’t look good on anyone’s resume. And South Florida has been a mess on and off the court.

Still, it looks like we’re going to get one heck of a conference season again. It all starts tonight when surprisingly unbeaten Connecticut visits Pittsburgh. The Huskies have Kemba Walker, the best player in the nation so far, and the Panthers may be the best they’ve ever been under Jamie Dixon. It’s hard to tell those two teams apart but we at NewJerseyNewsroom.com’s Pressbox give it a try with our first Big East Power Rankings.

First place votes in parentheses, total votes following

1. Syracuse (6)- 96: The Orange haven’t dominated but they’ve still gotten by without a loss. Fab Melo hasn’t been the force he was expected to be but Rick Jackson has come such great lengths to be the best big man in the conference.
2. Pittsburgh- 85: Before the season all the talk was about Ashton Gibbs but Brad Wanamaker has turned out to be pretty good. His all-around game is what makes these Panthers go.
3. Connecticut- 84: Kemba Walker has been a beast, averaging 26.5 ppg but Alex Oriakhi needs some credit for their 11-0 start. He is averaging 11.3 ppg, 9.9 rpg and 2.2 blocks to give UConn a low post presence.
4. Georgetown- 81: Austin Freeman, Jason Clark and Chris Wright. Your move: give me a better backcourt. And Julian Vaughn has emerged to give the Hoyas a big to bruise at Guard U.
5. Villanova- 74: We knows ‘Nova is good but how good? Their matchup on Dec. 30 with Temple should give a good clue into what we can expect once their conference slate begins.
6. Notre Dame- 66: These senior laden team is pretty darn good. Ben Hansbrough plays with gumption and Tim Abromitis is a sleeper candidate for Big East POY is Kemba ever cools off. Mike Brey has done a good job of developing Tyrone Nash and Carleton Scott.
7. West Virginia- 56: Kevin Jones has been a tad disappointing, only because he was expected to break out. But Casey Mitchell has made up for him by averaging 17.5 ppg and giving the Mountaineers a long-range bomber.
8. Louisville- 52: This team isn’t going to come close to any of Rick Pitino’s most talented squads but they have played well. Peyton Siva blooming into the guard we expected when he came to the Cards is a big reason.
9. Cincinnati- 49: The Bearcats are 12-0 but who knows what that means with their opponents. With the way their schedule works out, they could stay unbeaten until a Jan. 9 trip to Villanova. Then we’ll see if they are for real.
10. Marquette- 46: That 9-3 record is misleading because the losses have come against the only three teams of merit that the Golden Eagles have played. But with a trip to Vanderbilt up next then West Virginia coming to visit, we’ll see what Buzz Williams has this year.
11. Providence- 34: Marshon Brooks is averaging 23.5 ppg and 8.9 rpg, wow. Who saw that coming? The Friars could start 3-3 in the Big East with Louisville then coming to visit.
12. St. John’s- 30: The Johnnies come into Morgantown with a 26-point thrashing of Northwestern, which ended a disappointing out-of-conference season where a 7-3 record meant a loss at Fordham.
13. Rutgers- 26: This team has overachieved with their 9-2 record but their reckoning may come quickly with UNC at MSG tomorrow and then Villanova Jan. 2.
14. Seton Hall- 19: This is not how Kevin Willard imagined his first few months on the job to go. A win against USF could do a lot to quiet the worry in South Orange.
15. South Florida- 11: The Bulls are 306th in the country in points per game at 61.4 a night. And that was against the likes of Florida Atlantic and Kent State. That 6-7 record is ugly enough.
16. DePaul- 8: Different coach for the Blue Demons this season but you should expect more of the same until Oliver Purnell starts to turn it around in Chicago.

Follow the Pressbox on Twitter at @NJNRPressbox