The Big East Basketbal Media Day has its flurry of press releases. You can download your copy of the 2006-07 BE Media Guide (why doesn’t Mike Tranghese ever send me a copy?).
Now for the Coaches polls. Aaron Gray took home the BE Preseason Player of the Year and was a unanimous choice for the bizarre 10-man All-Big East squad (and then, apparently for shits and giggles they add 3 more players for “honorable mention”).
Gray is the fourth Pitt player to earn BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year recognition. The others were Charles Smith in 1986-87, Jerome Lane in ’87-88 and Brandin Knight in ’02-03.
In addition to Gray, a 10-player Preseason All-BIG EAST Team was selected. A pair of Georgetown junior standouts, forward Jeff Green and center Roy Hibbert, were unanimous selections along with Marquette sophomore guard Dominic James.
No other Pitt players made the list.
The Big East beat writers may have surprised with G-town taking 1st place, but the Coaches were predictable in their pre-season ballot.
School Pts. 1. Pittsburgh (10) 219 2. Georgetown (4) 212 3. Syracuse (1) 182 4. Marquette (1) 181 5. Connecticut 173 6. Louisville 149 7. Villanova 146 8. DePaul 134 9. St. John’s 105 10. Providence 102 11. Notre Dame 80 12. West Virginia 72 13. Cincinnati 52 14. Rutgers 49 15. Seton Hall 42 16. USF 22 First-place votes in parentheses
Pitt will be hard-pressed to play the “disrespect” card. Though, individual players might feel that.
Syracuse at #3 is something of a stunner, but I think it reflects on how good the coaches think Freshman Paul Harris will be. Providence up at #10 is a stunner to me. They are not nearly that talented and even if they want to keep Tim Welsh around as the easy mark, giving Providence fans a benchmark of expectations like that won’t help.
Cinci will be better then that. They have a lot of JUCO kids, so if they can get it together during the non-con, they could be more dangerous once the season starts. Seton Hall will be better then 15 if for no reason, Bobby Gonzalez will coach the kids up and steal a couple extra wins.
