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March 8, 2011

Big East Blogger Awards

Filed under: Basketball,Big East,Conference — Chas @ 11:33 am

Big East Tournament starts in just a little while. Happy times.

Rumble in the Garden polled Big East bloggers last week for Big East honors, before the weekend games.

You can see the overall voting results for each category:

Big East Player of the Year and All-Big East Team

Newcomer and Rookie of the Year

Big East Coach of the Year

Most Surprising and Most Disappointing Teams

Most Surprising and Most Disappointing Player on Your Team

Team You Don’t Want to See in Big East Tournament and How Will Your Team Do in the BET?

How Will Big East Teams Do in the NCAA Tournament?

What’s next for the Big East Teams not in the NCAA Tournament?

As for my vote…

1a: your 6 person all-league team, with the player of the year at the top.

I’m doing this with an eye on a reasonably functioning team:

Ben Hansbrough G, ND

Kemba Walker G, UConn
Dwight Hardy G, St. J
Marshon Brooks G-F, Prov
Rick Jackson, F Syr
Brad Wanamaker G, Pitt

Honestly, I’d like to split my POY vote between Hansbrough and Walker, but I have to give just the slightest edge to Hansbrough. Walker tailed off a bit late in the season, but he’s had to carry more of the load on UConn’s team so that has to be a factor. Just what Hansbrough has done and the way he’s played can’t be ignored — even if I hate the guy.

1b: your pick for newcomer of the year AND rookie of the year (they can be the same person).

Cleveland Melvin, DePaul

1c: your pick for Big East coach of the year.

Jamie Dixon, Pitt

A bit of a homer pick, yes. Still if Coach Dixon wasn’t going to get it last year despite being one of the biggest surprises last year and dealing with early injuries, why should Pitino get credit for doing the same thing this year?

Plus Pitt went wire-to-wire winning the conference and stayed in the top-6 all season. This team kept winning, even when they hit rough spots.

2. Who is the most disappointing team in the Big East? The most surprising?

I think Villanova has fallen so far below expectations at this point. I would consider Providence. For some reason, I expected a bit more from them. They competed, but rarely did more than that.

Most surprising goes to Louisville. They have been like Pitt last year. Just overachieving and at times gutting out wins.

3. Who is the surprise (positive) player on your team? Who is the player who has disappointed, relative to expectations?

The surprise player to me has been Nasir Robinson. He’s just been so strong this year. Only one really bad game (Louisville), but otherwise he has been a strong presence as an undersized power forward. He’ll never be a polished player, but he gets things done and has played so smart this season.

Disappointing, has to go J.J. Moore. Simply because of the expectations. He’s a top-50 player or so coming in, and kept saying all the right things. But when he’d get into the game, he’d just jack up shots and play out of the system. He was a freshman trying to show he should get more minutes, but instead lost them.

4. Early prediction: how will your team do in the Big East Tournament?

Since Pitt has a double-bye, I don’t really expect them to win more than one game.

4a. Which team are you afraid to meet in the tournament?

Odd pick, I’m sure, but West Virginia. Already beat them twice. As well as Pitt did against them in the second half of both games, I just have trouble picturing three wins in one season against them.

5. Let’s assume 11 teams from the Big East get to the NCAA Tournament. How many get…
(extra “credit” for naming the teams that will go to each round)

5a. to the Sweet Sixteen?

I like 4 teams to make it. It’s all matchu-ups, but if it is a fantasy world, what the hell: Pitt, Louisville, Syracuse and St. John’s

5b. To the Elite Eight?

2 teams: Pitt and Louisville

5c. To the Final Four?

Um, one team and no comment.

5d. Do any play in the championship game?

I dream of one team.

6. For teams who aren’t making the NCAA Tournament, what comes next?

DePaul, Rutgers and Seton Hall all hired new coaches so they aren’t doing anything there. I think Rutgers has the brightest future with their recruits and their coach. DePaul will get better, simply because it’s hard to be much lower.

Providence. There has been rumbling that Keno Davis might not survive. It’s been a mix of bad luck and lack of a clear plan.

South Florida. Yay, apathy.





I disagree that Jamie is a homer pick. This league has shown that it rewards teams for playing to expectations when those expectations are high. Boeheim, for instance, wins when they have the best team. It should be no different here. If you’re the coach of the best team in the beat league in America, you should get that award. Especially doing it with no freshmen contributions. That underscores the point that you’ve coached-up this group, rather than brought in a one-and-doner or two to make a quick run.

Comment by maz. 03.08.11 @ 12:52 pm

Am I the only one who wasn’t surprised by Louisville. I’m not sure I expected them to come in 3rd but if you told me that in the begining of the year I wouldn’t have batted an eye. They always have a lot of talent.

My coach of the year ballot would read Brey, Lavin, Dixon

Comment by Pabs 03.08.11 @ 2:25 pm

Chas is spot on with coach of the year. I don’t get why a lot of people equate coach of the year to team that most overachieved. What is harder coaching a team that flies under the radar with low pressure or coaching a team that is picked to win the conference and gets every team’s best shot? I’ll take the coach that meets very high expectations every time. Pitt gets every team’s best effort and even gets teams to run vastly different game plans (see the ND game and the second Nova game).

Comment by BlackMagic 03.08.11 @ 2:55 pm

Pabs, I agree, I would go with Brey over Lavin. Incidently both guys have senior laden teams. Jamie Dixon would be third, even though he did as good a job as anyone. I just think the jump from where they were last year to this year merits a little extra consideration. Last year, in my mind, Jamie Dixon was far and away the most deserving canidate for cocah of the year.

Comment by Justinian 03.08.11 @ 4:05 pm

Heck Chas, when I read the title of this blog, I thought I was going to be honored as most intelligent blogger

Comment by wbb 03.08.11 @ 7:12 pm

I’m still disappointed with Dante Taylor. He never lived up to his McDonald’s All-American hype.

Comment by Chuck Morris 03.08.11 @ 8:16 pm

If Dante’s improvement from his sophomore to junior year approaches anything near to Gray’s or McGhee’s, then he will be just fine since I believe Taylor has more talent

Comment by wbb 03.08.11 @ 8:43 pm

I’m afraid he’s going to be more like Chris Taft, except without the promising freshman year.

Comment by Jeff 03.08.11 @ 9:53 pm

More like Chris Taft?? Taft only played 2 years. We’ll never know how Taft would have fared as a junior at Pitt…..

Comment by JCE 03.09.11 @ 11:35 am

[…] you know, I felt like a bit of a homer picking Coach Jamie Dixon as the Big East Coach of the Year. Yes it is a defensible choice, and plenty of good reason to make the call. Still when you are a […]


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