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Eagles, Hoyas favorites in Big East Boston College guard Bell is coaches' pick as top player
NEW YORK (AP) -- Boston College, last season's surprise Big East champion, and Georgetown, which returned to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1997, were picked to win their divisons in a poll of the conference coaches. The Eagles, the only team in league history to go from worst to first, were the choice to repeat as East Division champions. They received six first-place votes and 81 points in the voting, which was released Wednesday at the league's annual preseason media day. The Hoyas, who lost to Maryland in the round of 16, had 12 first-place votes and 90 points as favorites in the West. "The approach is always the same for me," said Boston College's Al Skinner, the conference's coach of the year last season. "It's all other people's attitudes toward us and maybe they have changed, but mine certainly hasn't." Connecticut, which won 20 games but failed to make the NCAA tournament last season, was second behind Boston College. The Huskies had four No. 1 votes and 78 points, and were followed by Miami, Providence, St. John's, Villanova and Virginia Tech. Syracuse, which won at least 20 games for the 23rd time in coach Jim Boeheim's 25 seasons, had two first-place votes and 78 points to follow Georgetown in the West. "We have a chance to be very good if we can keep that chemistry from last year," Georgetown coach Craig Esherick said. "We might not have the depth we had last year, but I just think we'll be more comfortable with each other." Notre Dame was third, while Seton Hall and West Virginia tied for fourth. Pittsburgh and Rutgers rounded out the division. Boston College's Troy Bell, the league's co-player of the year last season, was chosen the preseason player of the year. The 6-foot-1 junior averaged 20.4 points last season and was a second-team All-America pick. He and Syracuse's Preston Shumpert were the only unanimous choices on the six-man preseason first team, and were joined by John Linehan of Providence, Kevin Braswell of Georgetown, Caron Butler of Connecticut and Darius Rice of Miami. The second team was Mike Sweetney of Georgetown, John Salmons of Miami, Ryan Humphrey of Notre Dame, Darius Lane of Seton Hall and Gary Buchanan of Villanova. The preseason rookie of the year was point guard Jonathan Hargett of West Virginia. The conference will have three new coaches this season - Jay Wright replaces Steve Lappas at Villanova, Louis Orr succeeds Tommy Amaker at Seton Hall and Gary Waters follows Kevin Bannon at Rutgers.
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