Isn’t everyone glad, my vote didn’t count for Big East Player of the Year ( and to steal from Bill Simmons, “the answer, as always, I’m an idiot.”)?

Connecticut’s Hasheem Thabeet and Pittsburgh’s DeJuan Blair, two of the nation’s top centers, have been named BIG EAST Co-Players of the Year by a vote of the league’s head coaches who were not permitted to vote for their own players.

The sharing of Player of the Year honors is the first since 2001-02 when two players from the same schools, Connecticut’s Caron Butler and Pittsburgh’s Brandin Knight, were tabbed by the BIG EAST coaches.  Splitting the award between two players has occurred five times in the 30-year history of the BIG EAST.

Both players helped their respective teams to 15-3 BIG EAST records which tied for the second place in the conference.

This season, Thabeet was the defensive anchor to Connecticut’s success.  The 7-3 junior averaged 13.6 points, 10.8 rebounds and a blocked shot mark of 4.5 that is second in the nation.  With 89 blocks in league games this season, Thabeet is already second on the all-time BIG EAST blocks list with 243, trailing Patrick Ewing by only five.  Thabeet has been named BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year for the past two seasons.

Blair was the force in the paint for the Panthers.  The 6-7 center averaged 15.6 points and a league-leading 12.4 boards.  He shot 59.6 percent from the floor and posted 17 double-doubles.  The sophomore was the only unanimous selection to the All-BIG EAST First Team.  Last year, Blair was named BIG EAST Co-Rookie of the Year.

No tally of the final votes to see if Sam Young (arguably) took any votes from Blair. The ballot had to be in on Friday — before Sam Young overpowered UConn again.

The Pitt press release notes that Blair is the third Pitt player to get BE Player of the Year honors with Knight and Charles Smith.

Blair was also named the District II POY by the US Basketball Writers Association. District II encompasses NY, NJ, DE, DC, PA and WV. Coach Dixon took Coach of the Year honors. On their all-D-II team Blair, Sam Young and Levance Fields were all included.

Gary Parrish at CBS Sportsline lists his picks for Conference POYs and COYs. He gives the Big East awards to DeJuan Blair and Coach Dixon.

Parrish  also likes Blair enough to name him to his list of 1st-team All-Americans. And he put Sam Young on the 3d team.

Talib Zanna is 6’8″ that’s good size in the college game. In the pros that’s average. In high school he looks like a friggin’ giant as he throws it down.

Hat tip to the MoshPitt for finding this.

Technically, it is underway, but since the Big East Tournament is a pure TV event if it isn’t being aired anywhere but over the internet I’m not so sure that it has really started.

Anyways, just for quick scanning, here’s a sampling of some of the Big East Tournament previews.

Philly paper, no surprise, is pulling for a run from ‘Nova.

This one is just capsules on each team. Grouping by favorites to teams likely to be gone before the favorites even arrive.

Capsule summaries are popular things. Especially with 16 teams to have to preview.

This preview piece thinks Pitt won’t make it the championship game, because this year Pitt should be going deeper in the NCAA. At least that seems to be what it is saying.

Still, Pitt has to be considered the favorite, both because of what they keep doing in the BET and the way they are playing.

In Mike DeCourcy’s preview, he doubts that Pitt will be looking to do anything but try to win the whole thing.

Following Pitt’s victory Saturday over the Huskies, coach Jamie Dixon was asked how the Panthers would approach this tournament. They won it a year ago and spent so much energy they hadn’t much left for the NCAAs. And with a shot at a top seed and the kind of NBA-type talent they’ve lacked in the past, this could be their best chance in years at NCAA Tournament success.

Dixon said the Panthers would go to New York looking to improve. He figures they’ll have to keep getting better to excel in the NCAAs, and he doesn’t see how that’ll happen if they don’t deliver the best possible effort at Madison Square Garden.

Of course, the mantra this year is that Pitt wants more than just the BET.

“We’re looking at the Big East,” senior forward Sam Young said Saturday afternoon after Pitt defeated Connecticut in the regular-season finale at the Petersen Events Center. “We know it’s here, and we’re focused on it. But at the same time we’ve got our eyes on the prize. Pitt has had trouble getting past the Sweet 16, and we feel like we’re the team that can finally do it. The sky is the limit for us.”

Oh, yeah.

The polls came out yesterday, and somewhat surprisingly Pitt came very close to being #1 in the AP Writers poll. Of the 71 voters, 33 put Pitt at #1, 35 had UNC, 2 chose Memphis and 1 went to Louisville. Gary Parrish at CBS Sports decided Pitt was #1.

The Coaches were a bit more static about not changing their #1 team.

That’s all right. I don’t think anyone really wants to be the #1 team in the polls at this point.

The only thing Pitt wants with a #1 next to itself will be the seed lines.

“I think it’s almost certain to happen,” he said. “There will be two from Pitt, UConn and Louisville.”

Lunardi, who held a national conference call last week, predicted Pitt is a lock to receive its first-ever No. 1 seed when the brackets are announced Sunday, especially with wins over Marquette and Connecticut in the past week.

But he feels there is almost no chance three Big East teams will receive three No. 1 seeds, regardless of what takes place at Madison Square Garden this week.

“Some people are trying to paint whether all three (Pitt, UConn and Louisville) should be on the top line,” he said. “I don’t see that happening. Maybe it’s political, but even if you take all that out, it’s hard for people to fathom that three of the best four teams are in the same conference.”

By location, Pitt is almost certain to be at Dayton. That would have their first round opponent be the winner from the play-in game.

As for the announced All-Big East teams, Sam Young repeats putting him in a limited company.

This is only the second time Pitt placed two players on the all-Big East first team — Charles Smith and Jerome Lane in 1986-87 were the originals — and the third time that three Pitt players received all-Big East honors in the same season.

Young becomes only the fourth Pitt player to earn all-Big East first-team honors twice. The others were Aaron Gray (2005-07), Brian Shorter (1988-90) and Smith (1986-88).

A total of 16 players received all-conference honors — six on the first team and five on the second and third teams — in voting by Big East coaches. Coaches were not permitted to vote for their own players.

“I think it was a tough call for the coaches (to determine) which of our three to vote for,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “I’m glad they all got honored.”

Not that seeing Fields all the way down on 3d team wasn’t a shock. Even Coach Dixon — while trying to be neutral about it — seemed to be taking a shot at his fellow coaches.

The biggest surprise was that Fields was named to the third team. Fields leads the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (4.1), is second in assists (7.6 per game) and averages 10.9 points per game. His assist-to-turnover ratio is almost twice as good as Marquette’s Dominic James (2.7), his closest competitor in the Big East.

Two other point guards made second-team all-conference ahead of Fields — Connecticut senior A.J. Price and Syracuse sophomore Jonny Flynn.

“It’s not a surprise,” Dixon said. “Sometimes, I think I value what point guards do more than other coaches. I look at what they do more than the scoring. I put more value on assists than the fans, coaches and media do. His assist-to-turnover ratio should be a bigger story than it has been. But then again, he’s a senior and it’s an old story.”

Roughly translated:  they are shortsighted, clueless fools.

NBE Basketball Report gave their awards.

DeJuan Blair took POY honors. Sam Young was 1st team All-Big East, Fields was 2nd. Coach Dixon was COY and they gave Ashton Gibbs honorable mention for freshmen.