Kevin Willard didn’t need a reminder. The Big East coaches, in their preseason poll, gave the Seton Hall coach one anyway by predicting the Pirates will finish eighth.

The seniors who led the Pirates to three straight NCAA Tournament bids, who led the program back to relevance and won the school’s first tournament game in 14 years last March, have moved on, and the expectations, at least from the outside, have taken a drastic tumble as a result.

“I don’t think that’s where we’re going to end up, but for a preseason coaches poll, which are usually pointless, it’s probably where we should be,” Willard said on Thursday at Big East media day.

“We know we have a lot to prove with our four seniors being gone,” said junior guard Myles Powell, the lone returning starter, who averaged 15.5 points per game a year ago.

Seton Hall lost 66.3 percent of its scoring and 73.1 percent of its rebounding. Willard admitted there isn’t a practice that goes by without him instinctively looking for one of those seniors. Powell, a second team all-league selection, made similar comments.

“I know Saturday [in an exhibition game against Boston College], when we don’t get an offensive rebound for like nine minutes, I’m going to be sitting there wishing Angel [Delgado] was there,” Willard said jokingly.

But that doesn’t mean the ninth-year coach isn’t excited about this group. He didn’t line up a brutal non-conference schedule, which includes Kentucky, Louisville, Nebraska and Maryland, magically expecting an extra year of eligibility from Angel Delgado and Co.

There is still experience on the roster, in Powell and fifth-year senior Mike Nzei. Sophomores Myles Cale and Sandro Mamukelashvili received invaluable experience a year ago, while sit-out transfers Taurean Thompson (Syracuse) and Quincy McKnight (Quinnipiac) practiced all season.This team, younger and more athletic, has the potential to be better defensively, with a shot-blocking dynamo (7-foot-2 junior college transfer Romaro Gill) that was previously lacking.

There, of course, remain unknowns. Willard isn’t sure how this group will respond to adversity — “their toughness worries me,” he said — and there is sure to be some with the daunting slate he formulated. He’s pushing them for over three hours in practice to instill that toughness, knowing the tough road that awaits.

“I like my team,” Willard said. “I want them to be battle-tested, and we put together an extremely tough schedule to test them.”