Publicity comes with winning. Keno Davis will tell you that. And in a conference regarded as one of the nation’s best, it isn’t easy to win.

For that reason, some of the Big East’s best players are often overlooked. A team with a poor record is brushed aside. And any standout players it may have are swept along with it.

‘When you’re on a winning team, you get more publicity,’ said Providence head coach Davis.

It’s that simple.

Keeping with that pattern, players like DePaul’s Cleveland Melvin and Rutgers’ Jonathan Mitchell are overshadowed. And only recently has Providence guard Marshon Brooks started to receive the recognition he deserves. The individual statistics are there for all these players, but the wins, arguably the most important stat, are nowhere to be found.

Melvin, a freshman forward, averages 14.3 points per game. He ranks sixth in the Big East in field-goal percentage and averages 1.5 blocked shots per game, in addition to his 14.3 points. But he is getting little notice outside of the Big East because he plays for DePaul, a team that is 1-14 in the conference.

Mitchell, Rutgers’ leading scorer at 14.8 points per game, has caught the attention of the coaches in the Big East. Despite averaging nearly 15 points per game in the toughest league in the country, his recognition stops there.

Yet he continues to put up gaudy numbers for his Rutgers team that is 4-11 in Big East play. The Scarlet Knights have lost six of their last seven games.

‘He’s playing inspirational basketball, he’s stepping up for his team, he’s making big shots,’ South Florida head coach Stan Heath said of Mitchell in the Big East coaches’ teleconference on Feb. 10. ‘He played very well against us. He’s a very difficult matchup.

‘He plays in and out, he’s got such a strong, physical body, and he makes hustle plays out there on the court as well. He’s having a very good senior year for them.’

But similar to Melvin and his 16th-place DePaul team, Rutgers is in 13th place in the Big East. Neither place attracts many headlines.

The same can be said at Seton Hall, where forward Jeff Robinson averages 12.1 points per game and 6.7 rebounds for a team with a 5-10 record in the Big East. Herb Pope is third in the conference in rebounding, and Jordan Theodore is 10th in the Big East in assists.

But even though Seton Hall doesn’t garner much attention, Pirates assistant coach Shaheen Holloway has seen progress in players like Theodore.

‘It’s really easy to come off the bench and play behind somebody,’ Holloway said in the Big East coaches’ teleconference on Feb. 3. ‘But for you to be that main guy every night and go out and play 30 to 35 minutes every night is real tough. So he’s making that adjustment. We put a lot of pressure on him to go out there and be our leader and to go out there and play ball.’

If there is one player in the conference who has drawn widespread attention despite being on a bad team, it’s Brooks. By now, the Big East and most of the nation have noticed Brooks despite his team’s 3-11 Big East record. As the Big East’s leading scorer and the No. 2 scorer in all of college basketball, coaches and players around the country take notice.

Brooks is the exception.

For Mitchell, the praise he gets from Big East coaches may be enough to make up for the lack of national attention he receives.

But spotlight or not, Rutgers head coach Mike Rice said Mitchell doesn’t listen to the rankings. He only cares about the team’s success.

‘Everyone knows where this team was picked, and no one thought much of it, including J. Mitch,’ Rice said in the Big East coaches’ teleconference on Feb. 10. ‘Every single day, he refuses to listen to anybody. He’s going to get the best out of this team and the best out of himself.’

rnmarcus@syr.edu

 

Published on February 23, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Rachel: rnmarcus@syr.edu