NEW YORK — A year after winning an outright Big East regular season championship, Syracuse found itself No. 3 on the conference’s 2010-11 preseason poll Wednesday. The poll was released at the conference’s annual media day at Madison Square Garden.

Pittsburgh, not Syracuse or West Virginia — a Final Four team a year ago — was the coaches’ preseason choice to win the conference this season. Jamie Dixon’s squad returns four starters, including All-Big East preseason selection Ashton Gibbs, from a team that finished 25-9 and was tied for second place in the league in 2009-10.

Villanova was selected as the second-place team, with Syracuse, Georgetown and West Virginia rounding out the top five.

‘Being picked to finish high is not a bad thing,’ Dixon said. ‘We’ve been picked high before. Last year was the first year we really haven’t. What we have done every year is finish a little higher than we were picked, so I guess it’ll be hard to do that this year.’

Syracuse freshman Fab Melo was voted as the league’s preseason Rookie of the Year. The 7-foot freshman, originally from Brazil, is expected to come in and play a significant role for the Orange this season, especially after likely losing center DaShonte Riley for the season with a foot injury.

Georgetown guard Austin Freeman was selected as the league’s preseason Player of the Year. Freeman, a three-year starter for the Hoyas, was an All-Big East second team selection a year ago, after averaging 19.5 points and shooting nearly 52 percent from beyond the 3-point arc in league play.

Aside from Freeman, the preseason first team is comprised of Pittsburgh’s Gibbs, Connecticut guard Kemba Walker, Villanova guard Corey Fisher, Seton Hall guard Jeremy Hazell and West Virginia forward Kevin Jones. Syracuse forward Kris Joseph was selected to the preseason second team, and SU forward Rick Jackson was one of three honorable mentions.

Before Freeman, the only other Georgetown players to be tabbed the conference’s preseason Player of the Year were Roy Hibbert (2007-08), Alonzo Mourning (1991-92) and Patrick Ewing (1982-83, 1983-84 and 1984-85).

‘It’s an honor, but I also look at it as all that matters is what happens at the end of the season,’ Freeman said. ‘I also know I need to focus even more because I’ll have a target on my back. It’s something I prepared for this summer, so I think I’m ready for it.’

Red Storm on the way back to the top?

Former UCLA head coach Steve Lavin was hired to turn around a St. John’s team that had fallen on hard times recently, and the buzz was evident Wednesday. Just a year after finishing with a 6-12 record in conference play, Lavin’s squad was the preseason pick to finish sixth and even snagged a preseason vote to win the conference.

Lavin admitted he knew the vote came from Louisville head coach Rick Pitino, who was very complimentary to the media of St. John’s combination of experience and talent heading into the season. The Red Storm has a league-high 10 seniors, including multiple key contributors from last season.

‘One of the strengths of this team is that we have 14 seniors in this program,’ Lavin said. ‘Ten players and four managers, and we want to send them out on a high note. To do that, they’ll have to take advantage of the fact that they are experienced, we are a veteran group, and they’ve been through the rigors of the Big East.’

St. John’s hasn’t been selected to finish higher than ninth in the preseason poll since 2002-03. Evidently with a new head coach and a group of experienced veterans, league coaches believe the Red Storm is ready to make a big jump this season.

Connecticut was selected as the No. 10 team in the preseason poll, prompting head coach Jim Calhoun to predict that he and Lavin have the best shot at winning the league’s Coach of the Year award if either of them can improve upon what both squads did a year ago.

‘It’s the first chance I’ve had in quite some time,’ Calhoun said. ‘Any time that you’re seven or above, you’re not winning the Coach of the Year. Lavin has a chance. Even when we have someone even at six, it could be Coach of the Year. It’s after that, that you start having chances.’

More than half of Big East games to be nationally televised

To kick off the annual media event, Big East Commissioner John Marinatto announced 73 of 144 of the league’s regular-season games would be televised nationally. In addition, all 16 teams in the league will play in at least five nationally televised games within the conference this season.

To Marinatto, this only further solidifies the Big East as perhaps the superior conference in college basketball.

‘Year in and year out, our conference has proven to be among the most competitive from top to bottom in the country,’ Marinatto said. ‘There is no question that much of our programs’ success can be attributed to the unparalleled exposure they receive annually.’

Once again, the league will partner with ESPN for the network’s Big Monday format. In addition, the Big East will have nationally televised games on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Syracuse will be showcased on national television 18 times this season, starting with Canisius on Sunday, Nov. 14, on ESPNU.

Overall, it will be the fourth consecutive year in which all 144 in-conference games will be nationally televised.

‘This is why most of us chose to play in the Big East,’ Connecticut guard Kemba Walker said. ‘It’s because of the competitiveness of the league and the exposure we get as players.’

aljohn@syr.edu

— Asst. Copy Editors Michael Cohen and Mark Cooper contributed reporting to this article

 

Published on October 20, 2010 at 12:00 pm