When Wes Johnson was named Big East Player of the Year last season, it was a fairly obvious choice to Villanova head coach Jay Wright. Wright thought the only other challenger was the Wildcats’ Scottie Reynolds.

This year, though, Wright can’t seem to come to the same easy consensus.

‘It definitely is a more wide open race than last year,’ Wright said in the Big East coaches’ teleconference on Feb. 24. ‘Last year, everyone had to choose between those two.’

The distinct possibility of 11 Big East teams making the NCAA Tournament means each team has worthy players. Even teams at the bottom of the conference standings have players who will challenge for the award. There is no clear-cut favorite.

Georgetown’s Austin Freeman was voted the Big East preseason Player of the Year, but he started off the season slow. That allowed Connecticut’s Kemba Walker to step up. For a while, he appeared to be the favorite.

‘The early on favorite was Kemba Walker for sure, and lately it’s really tightened up,’ Stan Heath said in the Big East coaches’ teleconference on Feb. 24.

Multiple players have risen to challenge Walker lately. During St. John’s rise from obscurity to No. 15 in the Associated Press poll, senior Dwight Hardy has scored at will, including his 34-point game last Saturday at Villanova.

But in the Big East, so many names score at will, such as Providence’s Marshon Brooks, Notre Dame’s Ben Hansbrough and Georgetown’s Freeman.

And the unique characteristic about the Big East is that almost every team has more than one player they rely on, Wright said. That makes the decision even more challenging for coaches.

‘I think the strength of the Big East this year is that every team has a great leader, but they’re not one-man teams,’ Wright said. ‘You can go through all the guys: Notre Dame, Georgetown. Pitt’s the best team, and you have to decide between the two guards (Ashton Gibbs and Brad Wanamaker). Both of them are equally as valuable. I have no clue right now.’

Wright’s view seems to be the general consensus among his fellow Big East coaches. The number of players making noise in the league represents the number of teams fighting for position in the NCAA Tournament.

And it all originates from Freeman, the preseason pick. He still has a shot to win it after resurfacing from a slow start to the season. His name comes up among countless conference coaches. He’s not always first, but he finds a way to get his name out there.

Louisville head coach Rick Pitino referenced Hardy and Walker before going back to Georgetown’s guard.

‘There’s probably a few other guys like Freeman that you can throw in the mix as well,’ Pitino said in the Big East coaches’ teleconference on Feb. 24. ‘I’d have to give that some thought.’

Players like Freeman, Hardy and Walker get more attention because they play for top teams in the Big East. Although not a necessity, both Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey and Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said players from winning teams are usually favored.

‘My criteria is a guy who really is helping a team to win the league at this point,’ Brey said in the Big East coaches’ teleconference on Feb. 24. ‘I’ve always really felt it should come from somebody that’s really chasing (a title).’

If there is one aspect all the coaches agree on, it’s that they don’t know who will surface from the depths and actually win the award.

It won’t be Johnson or Reynolds. They’re both gone.

Heath and Rutgers head coach Mike Rice agreed it is a wait-and-see process.

‘I’m going to hold my hand still and wait another week and a half to see how it ends up,’ Rice said in the teleconference. ‘I haven’t looked at the numbers and all the things that go in, but that’s going to be an interesting decision because there are so many deserving individuals.’

rnmarcus@syr.edu

Published on March 1, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Rachel: rnmarcus@syr.edu