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Instead, it was a time to hit the newsstand, and pick up a copy of Street and Smith's college basketball preview, must reading for both my father and me each fall.

Sadly, there is no more Street and Smith's-it merged with The Sporting News college basketball preview, taking the two best of the genre and halving them.

But the limitation of such magazines is that they tend to be written by those who haven't seen the teams play since March, or at the latest, early April.

This lag time is normal for any season preview magazine, regardless of sport. But it is particularly glaring in college basketball, when transfers haven't been viewed, freshmen merely sampled from game tapes, and monumental leaps forward in ability from returning players are the rule, not the exception. After all, these are college kids.

So when I attended Big East media day last Wednesday, I viewed it, first and foremost, as a way to get a 21st century, real-time update of what to expect in the coming season.

My conversation with John Thompson III, the coach at Georgetown, provided more insight into last season than this one, however. Thompson III seemed to have little in the way of concrete changes he planned to implement (or at least to share). He pointed out that center Greg Monroe had improved in every aspect of his game, but most of the difference he saw between last year's collapse and this year's prospects boiled down to, in order, "determination", "hunger", "chemistry", and several other words that made it clear he was not a huge fan of the players who departed, DaJuan Summers and Jessie Sapp.

Marquette's Buzz Williams, an underrated tactician and basketball thinker, had all summer to figure out how to recover from the loss of Jerel McNeal, Dominic James and Wesley Matthews. He's my early pick for coach of the year.

"The returning guys were all very accountable," Williams said. "Lazar [Hayward], from playing with the USA team, that experience really stretches you. He's much better off the bounce."

Jimmy Butler also improved his shooting, according to Williams, who relishes the opportunity to play the underdog.

Norm Roberts, meanwhile, knows a little something about being the underdog. However, the St. John's head coach believes he's got the horses to make a stride forward in this year's Big East.

"We have experience, depth and talent like we haven't had since I've been here," Roberts said. "Our big areas of improvement are going to be field goal percentage and turnovers." With a league-high 15.4 turnovers per game, Roberts' biggest ally may well be regression to the mean.

The thoughtful Keno Davis of Providence had plotted all summer about how to keep his prized guard Sharaud Curry healthy for the 2009-10 season.

"I need to be open to what my players say," Davis said. "When he's sore, I need to treat it more like you would in the NBA -- make sure he isn't going full-force in practice three or four days before a game if it's going to affect him physically."

Davis was honest about the limitations of his surprising Friars from last season, calling them a "defense-poor team that can play an up-tempo game."

He spent the summer poring over game tape. For Davis, the work of adjusting his system takes place primarily during the offseason.

"Much of the time last season, we had trouble with matchups," Davis said. "It's up to me to find ways to use matchups differently to be successful this season." For obvious reasons, Davis didn't want to reveal specifics, but he seemed upbeat about what he had discovered.

As for Hall of Famer Jim Calhoun, Connecticut's legendary coach, it would have been easy to focus on last year.

"I think in a three-game series, we'd beat Michigan State two times," Calhoun said of the school that knocked Connecticut out of the NCAA Tournament last season. "But that's not how it works."

Considering the ample talent of sophomore point guard Kemba Walker, coupled with his horrific performance in the MSU game, Walker stands out as the player with the most potential for improvement on the Huskies. Walker said he still hasn't gotten the MSU game out of his head, while Calhoun believes his work in the gym will make him a consistent shooter this season.

"Kemba is improved a great deal," Calhoun said. "I believe his consistency will be there. Of course, you have to see consistency day-to-day to know it's there."

Most tantalizing of all for any college basketball program is the high-impact transfer. Herb Pope, the 6'8" addition to Seton Hall's frontline, was a key contributor for New Mexico State. The soft-spoken power player knows what side of the court Seton Hall's bread is buttered -- whichever side is occupied by Jeremy Hazell.

"I worked all summer on making sure I had less turnovers, and better conditioning to not only get up and down the floor, but recognize opportunities to get the ball to Jeremy," Pope said.

Pope comes in hoping to be a key part of the Seton Hall offense, which looks to steal easy baskets in transition, often to a fault last season.

"No risky passes, no risky plays," Pope vowed.

As for what fans can expect from Pope, he summarizes thus: "I'm a versatile big man, who can also hit the 18-footer," Pope said, adding quickly, "when Jeremy is covered."

Pope's desire to play in the Prudential Center, the basketball jewel that Seton Hall calls home, represents the only certainty one can come away with from all the preseason discussion.

"I am so excited for it," Pope said of his first game in the arena. "Just watching it fill up, you felt like big-time basketball was being played there."

And no differently than when I held Street and Smith's as a child, that was the feeling as I exited media day -- anticipation of the Big East season to come. Big-time basketball will be played there.