The Big East Coaches had a weekly conference call. This time, of course, to discuss the BET. I imagine the time seemed to fly by for reporters with 4 less coaches to have to hear from. They don’t have the audio up at this time.
There are of course articles about the call. Quotes from coaches raving about how tough this will be.
Pitt, Georgetown, Cincinnati and Seton Hall are considered locks for the NCAA tournament field. Syracuse and Louisville can play their way in with one or two victories this week.
“It’s absolutely incredible,” West Virginia coach John Beilein said yesterday. “If you go back two or three years, those first-round games look a like a Sweet 16 group. I looked at the bracket [Sunday] and that’s when it finally hit me how strong this league was this season. The teams that are playing just to get to the quarterfinal round … it’s unbelievable.”
Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun compared this season to the 1996 Big East tournament. In ’96, the Big East produced six NBA first-round picks, headlined by Allen Iverson, Ray Allen and Kerry Kittles. Allen and the Huskies beat Iverson and the Hoyas, 75-74, in the Big East championship game.
Syracuse didn’t make the Big East title game that year, but the Orange advanced to the NCAA title game a few weeks later.
It could be that type of year again in the Big East.
“I think we had three top-10 teams and five teams in the top 20 that year …” Calhoun said. “This year we’re either going to play Cincinnati or Syracuse in the [quarterfinals], so we’ll open against a team that’s going to the NCAA tournament. It was almost impossible to imagine this scenario a few years ago. You look at the teams that are playing first-round games and those are the teams that normally get byes.”
And of course reflecting on just how hard the whole season was.
“The league is a grind. There was just never a time to relax,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “Every game was a huge game, no matter who came in.”
“You could make a case for anybody in this league keeping you up at night, not wanting to face them,” said Tom Crean, coach of Marquette, one of the new teams and the only one to earn a first-round bye.
Sam Young getting All-Big East Freshman honors marks the 3rd straight year Pitt has placed a player on that squad. Chris Taft in 2004 and Ronald Ramon for 2005.
Aaron Gray gave a seemingly Oscar award type comment for being named All-Big East.
Junior center Aaron Gray became the sixth player in school history to earn first-team honors. Senior guard Carl Krauser was named to the second team and freshman forward Sam Young was named to the all-rookie team.
Gray joins Charles Smith, Jerome Lane, Brian Shorter, Brandin Knight and Chevon Troutman as Pitt first-team selections.
“It’s a great achievement,” Gray said. “It’s a great compliment to my team. I couldn’t have done it without them. The support the coaches and my teammates gave me is probably the biggest reason this happened.”
And I’d like to thank all the little people out there that made this possible.
Today Coach, Player and Most Improved Player of the Year in the Big East will be announced.
Gray is a virtual lock for most improved.
Player of the Year will probably go to Rudy Gay. I think Pittsnogle gets his vote splintered by teammate Gansey. The same will happen for Villanova’s Ray and Foye.
I’ll have my selections later and the Big East Blog will put out the blog vote.
Ron Cook still argues for Jamie Dixon. To make the argument, Cook goes revisionist that there were no expectations for Dixon and Pitt. Bull. There were plenty of questions about Pitt. As I said from the end of last season, this team would be anywhere from 6-10 to 10-6 in the Big East. The team met the upper-part of expectations. Also note that Cook leaves out Tom Crean and Marquette who had just as many if not more questions and lowered expectations.
Suffice to say, I did not pick Coach Dixon. If you are looking for a clue as to my vote, here was my preseason predictions for the Big East order.
