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The Bell tolls Boston College scorer named Big East player of yearPosted: Tuesday March 11, 2003 8:15 PMNEW YORK (AP) -- Troy Bell, who set a Big East record for scoring average, was selected the conference player of the year Tuesday, the fifth player to win the honor more than once. The 6-foot-1 senior guard at Boston College, co-player of the year with Notre Dame's Troy Murphy in 2001, is one of 10 players selected to the conference's first team three times. Seton Hall's Louis Orr was chosen coach of the year. Syracuse's Carmelo Anthony was a unanimous selection as rookie of the year. Connecticut sophomore Emeka Okafor was the defensive player of the year. Syracuse's Hakim Warrick was the most improved player. Bell averaged 27.8 points in conference games this season, and his 1,388 points were second on the Big East career list, 17 behind Lawrence Moten, who played at Syracuse from 1991-95. Bell was the league's rookie of the year in 2000. The only other Boston College player to be chosen player of the year was John Bagley in 1981. The player of the year award was shared the last two seasons. Caron Butler of Connecticut and Brandin Knight of Pittsburgh were co-players last year. The others chosen player of the year more than once were Chris Mullin of St. John's (1983, '84, '85), Patrick Ewing of Georgetown (1984, '85), Richard Hamilton of Connecticut (1998, '99) and Murphy. Orr guided Seton Hall to a 16-11 overall record, 10-6 in the Big East, good for third place in the West Division. The Pirates were picked sixth in the division in the preseason voting of the league's coaches. The Pirates started 0-3 in league play, but they became a factor by winning nine straight games, eight of them conference games. Orr, a first-team all-conference pick at Syracuse in 1980, is the first former Big East player to be a head coach in the league. The only other Seton Hall coach to win the award was P.J. Carlesimo in 1988 and 1989. Anthony was fourth in the league in scoring (22.5) and third in rebounding (10.0), the latter the best mark in the country among freshmen. He was voted rookie of the week a record 10 times this season and joins Pearl Washington (1984), Derrick Coleman (1987) and Moten (1992) as Orangemen selected rookie of the year. The 6-9 Okafor led the nation in blocked shots (4.9) and led the league in rebounding (11.0). The sophomore averaged 16.1 points and joined Donyell Marshall (1994) as the only Huskies to win the defensive award. Warrick, a 6-8 sophomore, saw his scoring and rebounding averages jump from 6.1 and 4.8 last season to 15.4 and 9.1, both second to Anthony on the Orangemen. The other Syracuse players to be chosen most improved were Etan Thomas in 1998 and Preston Shumpert in 2001. Syracuse senior Kueth Duany received the league's sportsmanship award. The voting is done by the league's head coaches, who cannot vote for their own players.
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