USA Today released its special college basketball section today, and the publication predicts that Louisville will finish the upcoming season as the Big East's No. 4 team.

Here's how USA Today sees the final league standings existing:

1. Syracuse
2. Pittsburgh
3. UConn.
4. Louisville
5. Marquette
6. Villanova
7. Cincinnati
8. Notre Dame
9. Georgetown
10. West Virginia
11. St. John’s
12. Rutgers
13. Seton Hall
14. South Florida
15. Providence
16. DePaul

Additionally, no Louisville players made the first or second All-Big East teams.

FIRST TEAM

Ashton Gibbs, Pittsburgh (League POY)
Darius Johnson-Odom, Marquette
Tim Abromaitis, Notre Dame
Kris Joseph, Syracuse
Kevin Jones, West Virginia

SECOND TEAM

Scoop Jardine, Syracuse
Jason Clark, Georgetown
Cleveland Melvin, DePaul
Herb Pope, Seton Hall
Augustus Gilchrist, South Florida

The Big East coaches - whose votes determine the final All-Big East selections - generally view team success more highly than individual statistics. This is why I sort of chuckle when I see folks saying guys like Cleveland Melvin and Gus Gilchrist could compete for Big East Player of the Year.

If Louisville has a monster season, guys like Peyton Siva and Kyle Kuric will be able to look back at these preseason publications and laugh.