As February comes into focus in the Big East, so too does the potential NCAA Tournament watch, the bubble watch, the awards watch and the lame duck coaching watch. Notre Dame is on two of these three watches -- and definitely not the two most people thought at the beginning of the season.
That said, we present our mid-season Big East awards (No, we don't get a vote at the end of the year) and our mid-season grades for Notre Dame's players and coaching staff.
First, the Big East Awards:
Player of the Year: The candidates are Pittsburgh's Aaron Gray, Marquette's Dominic James or Notre Dame's Russell Carter. The darkhorse that not many people know about is Providence senior Herbert Hill. We think it is a two-man race between Gray and Hill -- but we're inclined to give it to the 7-footer from Pittsburgh. He leads the league in rebounding (10.2 per game) and is 10th in scoring with 15.4 points per game. Hill, on the other hand, is fourth in scoring with 17.1 points and fifth in rebounding with 8.4 per game. He's also second in field goal percentage at 67.6 percent. But Pitt is the top team in the league and Gray is a major reason why. Our ballot: 1. Gray; 2. Hill; 3. Carter; 4. James.
Most Improved Player: This one is easy -- and if he doesn't win it, we'll be shocked. It is Russell Carter all the way. Heck, the toughest competition he'll have might come from his own team in junior forward Rob Kurz. But Carter has become a star in the league and has taken over games at points -- Case in point: Alabama. In the span of a season, he's slowly playing his way from Europe next year to a shot in the NBA or an NBDL roster slot.
Our ballot: 1. Carter; 2. Kurz; 3. Frank Young, WVU; 4. Demetrius Nichols, Syracuse
Freshman of the Year: Notre Dame's Luke Harangody is having a good year. Syracuse's Paul Harris was the most touted recruit in the league. Right now, though, it is a two-player contest between Villanova's Scottie Reynolds and Seton Hall's Eugene Harvey. We were impressed with Harvey when he played Notre Dame and also in games we've caught on television -- but Reynolds is something else entirely. In conference games, he's fourth in scoring (17.0 ppg.) and eighth in free-throw percentage. Plus, he always seems to be around at critical portions of games for the Wildcats.
Our ballot: 1. Reynolds; 2. Harvey; 3. Harangody; 4. Harris.
Coach of the Year: This one is tough. There are three guys leading surprising teams and then there is Jamie Dixon, who has the best team in the conference and is still coping with the death of his sister, Maggie, last April. For sentiment, you'd want to give it to Dixon. But the turnarounds Mike Brey has done at Notre Dame, John Beilein at West Virginia and Tim Welsh at Providence have done are pretty impressive. That said, Brey has had to deal with the suspension of his starting point guard mid-season, playing two freshmen point guards in Kyle McAlarney's slot and injuries at different points to senior guard Colin Falls and junior forward Rob Kurz. Yet his team continues to play as if none of it is missing on the court. So we give it to the seventh-year coach from Notre Dame.
Our ballot: 1. Brey; 2. Beilein; 3. Dixon; 4. Welsh.
Here is a mid-season awards discussion from Mike Waters and Kim Baxter at the Syracuse Post-Standard, the only one we were able to find in our quick search. If you know of others, tag them below.
Also, feel free to give us your thoughts. Always wondering what y'all out there in the blogosphere are thinking about Big East hoops.
-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette
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