[Cracked Sidewalks] Big East Preseason Awards

[brewcity77]

In the past, we've done conference previews strictly in alphabetical order. This year, we will be going in predicted order of finish. But before we get to that, we have the Cracked Sidewalks preseason awards to hand out. Today we go through our predicted Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, first and second teams all-conference, and freshman of the year. Strap in, the season is just over a month away!

Big East Preseason Awards

[tower912]

My only nit to pick is whether Pitino will have SJU playing at a slower pace.

[brewcity77]

My only nit to pick is whether Pitino will have SJU playing at a slower pace.

Take it to the bank, they will and I have absolutely no question about that whatsoever. Anderson's team was #1 in the country in adjusted tempo each of the past two years. Pitino has never had a team in the top-10 in the kenpom era and hasn't had a team in the top-50 in the past 20 years. In addition, four of his five projected starters (all but Soriano) played in sub-100 tempos last year, including Daniss Jenkins at Iona with Pitino.

Everyone remembers his old days with the press, but Pitino doesn't coach like that anymore. Iona was relatively up-tempo, but they were #103 in tempo last year. I'm not saying they'll play slow (though four of his past six seasons in D1 were sub-150) but it won't be close to what Anderson does, and will be much more suited to Soriano's game.

[MU82]

Was curious about this, brew:

Jones is the only returning high-major player to rank in the top-100 in two-point field goal percentage (64.3% was #79 nationally)

Really? Not a single high-major player ranked ahead of the guy who was #79 last season is back for 2023-24? That's weird.

Thanks for the link. Getting psyched for the season!

[brewcity77]

Was curious about this, brew:

Jones is the only returning high-major player to rank in the top-100 in two-point field goal percentage (64.3% was #79 nationally)

Really? Not a single high-major player ranked ahead of the guy who was #79 last season is back for 2023-24? That's weird.

Thanks for the link. Getting psyched for the season!

Ahh crap...6'5" or under. It's updated.

[MU82]

Ahh crap...6'5" or under. It's updated.

Ah. Less weird.

[dgies9156]

Question: Oso gets no love?

I like Kam Jones -- a lot! But I suspect Oso may be a critical part of our team and more worthy of recognition than this suggests.

We shall see.

[PGsHeroes32]

Question: Oso gets no love?

I like Kam Jones -- a lot! But I suspect Oso may be a critical part of our team and more worthy of recognition than this suggests.

We shall see.

They play different positions.

Oso got love. He was 2nd team.

[Jay Bee]

Oso's usage won't be high is the deal

[brewcity77]

Question: Oso gets no love?

I like Kam Jones -- a lot! But I suspect Oso may be a critical part of our team and more worthy of recognition than this suggests.

We shall see.

I think second team is love, and part of it is positional. I don't like teams that couldn't feasibly be on the court together. With Kalkbrenner and Soriano, there are already two bigs. I just don't see Oso putting up those kind of numbers as he'll usually be the third or fourth scoring option on the floor.