Sizing up the other teams in the City Six

A midsummer look at the rest of the City Six:

The Wildcats should start this season where they spent much of last season - in the Top 10. Villanova lost Big 5 Player of the Year James Bell and reserve Tony Chennault. Everybody else is back.

Whoever the fifth starter is with Jay Vaughn Pinkston, Darrun Hilliard, Ryan Arcidiacono and Daniel Ochefu will join an experienced group that went 29-5.

Phil Booth (Mount St. Joe's in Baltimore) and Mikal Bridges (Great Valley) are Top 100 recruits.

'Nova will be the favorite in the Big East and the Big 5. This group has put together consecutive very strong regular seasons. The Wildcats are one long postseason run away from a legacy that will be remembered for quite some time.

The Atlantic 10 champions might not be starting over, but it feels that way. When you lose 12 seasons of college basketball and 4,540 points, you have lost so much, you become a giant question mark.

Langston Galloway, Ronald Roberts and Halil Kanacevic built up their careers gradually to a crescendo at the finish. They were fun to watch, played the game with purpose and flair and finished 24-10 last season.

DeAndre Bembry, the Big 5 Freshman of the Year, is back. So is senior point guard Chris Wilson. The bench did not get much run last season. Five freshmen and one transfer will be in line for minutes right away. Shooting will be the biggest issue.

Freshman forward James Demery (from North Carolina) comes highly touted. Aaron Brown (Penn Wood) did not have much success at West Virginia, but he had a decorated high school career.

When you come off the Sweet 16 and lose one starter, expectations are high. It never really worked for the Explorers last season, as they finished 15-16.

Now, they will be playing without Tyreek Duren, Sam Mills and Tyrone Garland. So, it will definitely be different.

Big men Jerrell Wright and Steve Zack are a nice foundation. If La Salle had one major issue last season, it was shooting. The Explorers shot 37.7 percent from the arc and made 262 threes in their Sweet 16 season. Last season, it was 32.5 percent and 177, a huge dropoff.

Transfers Jordan Price (Auburn) and Cleon Roberts (Georgia Southern) are most known for one attribute - shooting. Put them with redshirt freshman point guard Amar Stukes (La Salle High) and you have interesting possibilities.

The Quakers went 8-20 last season after going 9-22 the season before. There is a new athletic director and a lot of grumbling.

This would be a good time to reverse the trend. If it is going to happen, juniors Tony Hicks and Darien Nelson-Henry will be critical components. They are good players, but have not done any winning yet.

Penn lost Fran Dougherty and Miles Jackson-Cartwright, their second- and third-leading scorers.

Mostly, they just lost the ball too much the last two seasons, an insane 947 turnovers in 59 games. That must change or the bottom line won't.

The Dragons finished 16-14, but were clearly headed for much better when Damion Lee went down with a torn ACL. Lee will be back, but Chris Fouch (18.3 points) and Frantz Massenat (17.5) won't.

When you lose nearly 36 points per game, you have lost a lot. Not only could those two score, they also had vast experience.

A healthy Lee is one of the best players in the city. Tavon Allen certainly had his moments last season.

Some of the newcomers will be key for Drexel. They would include Roman Catholic's very good Rashaan London and New England's Sammy Mojica, a player with nice potential.