- The biggest news of the morning is the release of the preseason Big East coaches’ poll. Louisville was almost unanimously pegged as the conference top dog as the Cardinals received 14 of 15 first-place votes. The other first-place vote went to Notre Dame even though the Fighting Irish ended up behind Syracuse in the overall voting. Peyton Siva was tabbed as the preseason conference player of the year, and joined by teammates Gorgui Dieng and Chane Behanan on the First Team and Honorable Mentions lists, respectively. Syracuse (CJ Fair and Brandon Triche) and Notre Dame (Jack Cooley and Jerian Grant) each placed two players on the team.
- To piggyback on the Media Day honors and rankings, it’s pretty wild for a player on the last-place team make the First Team All Big East list. If anything, it demonstrates the respect shared around the league for Providence senior Vincent Council, who has become somewhat of a conference institution despite his team’s performance over his tenure. But this evaluative disparity also underscores the opinion that Ed Cooley’s star freshmen won’t be around enough to make any real traction. As FriarBlog speculates, Providence hasn’t placed a player on the preseason First Team since Ryan Gomes in 2004.
- Georgetown will apparently square off on October 28 against North Carolina, in what is being uncomfortably described as a “secret scrimmage.” The Hoyas made the same trip a year ago, under an NCAA provision that allows a team to replace one of its preseason cupcakes with another Division I team so long as the game is privately held and no official score is kept. The lost (and newly found) Dream Team practice tapes have nothing on these games.
- UConn issued a press release on Tuesday announcing that the school has secured the initial funding necessary to break ground on a new basketball facility. In light of a $2 million gift from Mark and Rosalind Shenkman, the UConn Foundation revealed that it has raised 75% of the $32 million it needs to complete construction, and that the remaining $8 million will be sought through financing. The creatively named UConn Basketball Development Center will abut Gampel Pavilion on the former site of the now-razed Memorial Stadium. The new facility should foster a greater sense of geographical continuity for UConn basketball.
- Highly touted class of 2013 point guard Roddy Peters made his college decision yesterday morning, electing to take his talents to Maryland to play for Mark Turgeon’s Terrapins. Georgetown and Rutgers were among the impressive list of recruiting also-rans, which additionally included Kansas and UCLA. On Thursday, Georgetown gets another opportunity to bag a top-50 recruit when Memphis big man Johnathan Williams III makes his college choice.
Will Tucker (124 Posts)Kentucky native living and working in Washington, D.C. Fan of tacos, maps, and the 30-second shot clock. Not a fan of comments sections, bad sportswriting.