With Troutman earning 1st Team All-Big East honors, Coach Dixon had plenty of praise for him.
Troutman, a 6-foot-7 power forward from Williamsport, Pa., is the fifth Pitt player to earn Big East first-team honors and the first since Brandin Knight in 2002. The others are Jerome Lane, Charles Smith and Brian Shorter.
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“It’s a great reward for Chevy,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “He’s been a great player for four years, great for our program. This is the first time he’s gotten the recognition he deserves. It’s been a long time coming for him. He’s been so valuable for us the past four years.”
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“Chevy kept getting better and better as the year went on,” Dixon said. “It seems like he’s always been under-appreciated. It’s nice to see him get the accolades. He’s always been valuable. His numbers went up this year, but his value has always been a constant.”
Of course, Troutman downplays it.
“It’s a great accomplishment,” Troutman said. “I feel like I worked hard for it. It’s well-deserved, I guess. That’s what everyone keeps telling me.”
Now, 5 of the 6 1st-teamers were forwards, and 3 of the 5 on the second team were forwards. So, can someone explain this?
Despite their omission from the first team, it was a strong year for guards in the Big East. Villanova’s Allan Ray joined Krauser on the second team. Chris Thomas of Notre Dame, Marcus Williams of Connecticut and Daryll Hill of St. John’s made the third team.
“I don’t know if there has been guard play as good as it has been this year in the 19 years I’ve been in the league,” Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said. “For a guy like Carl Krauser or Marcus Williams not to make first team. … For Chris Thomas to be on the third team, that’s all you really need to know. He scored 2,000 points. It just seems like every team is loaded with guards.”
I’m not saying guard play was bad this year. The fact is, though, that the talent at the forward position in the BE this year has been outstanding. Far better than the guard play.
Other coaches in the Big East have plenty of praise for Troutman.
“I don’t think I’ve seen a player in our league like him,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. “I just think he’s a great story. He wasn’t heavily recruited, but he has such a polished game. It’s a pleasure to see a kid play the game the way he does.”
Added Calhoun, who watched Troutman scorch his team for 29 points, including 25 in the second half, in January: “I think officials give him calls sometimes because he plays the game the way it’s supposed to be played. They admire that in him. I admire it in him, too. I complain a lot about Troutman when we play against them, but I’d take him in a minute.”
Troutman was shunned by the Big East coaches in the preseason, failing to make their first or second teams in October, but he was not offended by the slight.
“It honestly didn’t bother me,” said Troutman. “I just figured I was going to work hard and do what I could to help us out. The first time I ever thought about any of this stuff is when Jim Calhoun (Connecticut coach) made a statement in the paper about me.”
Troutman said he read in a Williamsport paper that Calhoun suggested he has a shot at being the Big East’s Player of the Year, which will be announced today.
“Hey, if he said it, man, I’ll back it,” Troutman said, smiling.
Warrick is going to win the award, but I figure Troutman will get a bunch of 2nd and 3rd place votes.
As for Krauser going to the 2nd team and McNamara being on the 1st team, even Syracuse partisans were a little surprised. Krauser isn’t saying anything publicly about it.
For Pitt in the Big East Tournament, they are looking to be only the second team in Big East history to make it to the championship game 5 straight years. They are going to have to get past a very good Villanova team that has set its goals very high for the post season.
That’s why Wright took a deep breath Monday after a practice at the Pavilion but before his keynote postseason address to his Wildcats. He knew what he wanted to say, but he wanted to make say it right. He wanted to tell his team that this — this postseason, the one that will begin in full fury with a Big East playoff game Thursday in New York against Pitt — is their time. It is their time to take this postseason to — uh-huh — the Final Four.
Not later. Now.
“That is something to talk about,” Wright said. “But there are so many firsts for us right now. I think they are really enjoying that. I think they are focusing on, ‘We have accomplished a lot of firsts, now let’s win our first Big East Tournament.’ I think that’s what they are looking at. Because of our frustration of our last two years, they are focused right now on this Big East Tournament.”
If that were to be Wright’s charge to his players, it would come with logic. A quick dismissal from the conference tournament would negatively affect the WildcatsÂ’ seeding for the NCAA Tournament and necessarily make their path to the Final Four more crooked.
In the meaningless debate department. There is the question of whether the Big East or ACC is the better conference. I honestly don’t care. At best, it’s an issue of quantity over quality. The ACC has 2-3 elite teams, and then everyone else. Those teams get the ink and the attention. The Big East has depth, making the conference schedule a gauntlet. It also makes it hard to stay focused on just a couple teams. Just like in single games, it seemed everyone made runs in the standings.
Mike Celizic at MSNBCsports.com, sides with the Big East.
Year in and year out, you won’t find a better, more competitive conference. If you don’t believe that, turn on your television during the next few days and check out the Big East tournament.
The setting is decent enough — Madison Square Garden. Although St. John’s plays its conference schedule there, it’s nobody’s home court; half the teams in the conference can drive there in four hours or less, and big chunks of the campus populations do just that. And why not? It’s a great tournament in one of the greatest cities on earth.
If you watch, you’ll understand why the Big East is so good at basketball. It’s not because of the number of first-round draft picks it produces or the spectacular end-to-end play. ItÂ’s because the Big East plays basketball the way the college game should be played.
It’s man-to-man defense, setting hard picks, moving without the ball, making the extra pass, blocking out under the boards. ItÂ’s sweat and blood and sometimes torture to watch.
It’s all in the kind of game you like.
