If not for the fact that St. John's coach Norm Roberts is grounded as solidly as the concrete of the city's sidewalks, there might be cause to question the man's optimism.
He toils in a league that this season is considered harder to crack than a Bill Belichick smile.
He has a team composed mostly of underclassmen that have yet to learn how to win.
And, despite the university's oddly-timed announcement last season that it had picked up the final year of his contract (it contains an automatic five-year rollover which can be unrolled with the flick of a pen), Roberts, coming off an 11-19 season, is in the final year of his contract.
Yet as he relaxed in his office overlooking the Red Storm's new Taffner Fieldhouse practice facility, he spoke like a coach that couldn't wait for tonight's season-opening tipoff against LIU.
"I know we're not as far as away as some people think," Roberts told The Post. "I know that every year we've been here we've improved the talent base.
"I know we've got good kids that want to be here," Roberts said. "They want to be here. And for the first time, we've got competition at a lot of positions and we've got athletes going at each other every day in practice. Every day."
The same can be said of Connecticut, which was voted to win the Big East in a narrow margin over Louisville, which has Final Four aspirations. The Huskies and Cardinals, the Post's preseason Nos. 2 and 3 teams (see tomorrow's Post), are two of eight Big East teams in the Post's preseason Top 25.
Marquette, with its formidable three-guard attack of Dominic James, Jerel McNeal and Wesley Matthews, is a nasty squad. Pittsburgh, led by All-American forward Sam Young and New York guard Levance Fields, is the defending Big East Tournament champ.
Villanova, with versatile players Dante Cunningham, Shane Clark and Antonio Pena, cause mismatch nightmares. Syracuse, with its 2-3 zone that even Freud couldn't analyze, also has a great lead guard in Jonny Flynn.
Add in Georgetown, Notre Dame, which returns Player of the Year Luke Harangody and heady Staten Island point guard Kyle McAlarney, and West Virginia, which has become a master of March Madness, and the Big East has become its own worst enemy.
"It's like one of those Halloween movies that they make over and over again," said Rutgers coach Fred Hill. "Everyone has a chainsaw."
EMTB2006 
