Let's start with Ernie DiGregorio. Marvin Barnes. Joe Hassett.
In later years, what about Tom Garrick? Ken McDonald? Joe and Justin Mazzulla? Jimmy and Billy Baron? More recently, Ricky Ledo, David Duke, Andrew Chrabascz, Cole Swider, Erik Murphy – they all made a mark in one way or another at the collegiate and/or professional level, bringing fame to their name and their game.
But none of these guys, as good as they might have been, has what Cumberland, RI's Tyler Kolek has. He has a trophy that says, "Big East Player of the Year."
Kolek's selection by the Big East coaches as the league's player of the year shouldn't come as a surprise. He led the conference (and ranked 2nd nationally) in assists per game at 7.9 and in assist-to-turnover ratio, finished second on his Marquette team in scoring (12.7 points) but more importantly, he learned how to lead.
It might have been his greatest accomplishment over the past year, from one season to the next.
"I've said it every single day. The point guard can't have a rough practice," Kolek explained Wednesday. "So I just took that kind of leadership approach this year. No matter how I was feeling, I was just taking care of my guys in practice."
Additionally, Kolek says he worked very hard on his floor game as well. Known as primarily a shooter during his high school (Cumberland HS) and prep school (St. George's) days, Kolek continued to develop his overall floor game by taking charge – figuratively, if not literally.
"I kind of lacked a little confidence (at the start)," Kolek said. "My right hand was affecting my shot a little more than it should have, I put my left hand under the ball a bit more and my confidence started to improve once the shots started to fall."
That, they did. Kolek also finished the regular season fifth in the Big East in steals (1.8 per game), ninth in free throw shooting (81.4 percent) and ends the year as one of five finalists for the Bob Cousy Award as the nation's best point guard.
Confidence, in himself and in his teammates, has been a huge key to success. "We want to grow as much as anybody in the country," Kolek explained. "We wanted to be playing our best basketball at the end of February into early March, and I think that's what we've been doing. We're onto the postseason."
"On the court, we're just trying to make the right next play," said Marquette head coach Shaka Smart, who was also named as the Big East Coach of the Year by his peers. "Our guys, and Tyler, have done that all season long and that's what we'll need to keep advancing."
BIG EAST NOTES
In addition to Kolek's Player of the Year award and Smart's Coach of the Year honor, Villanova's Cam Whitmore was named as the Big East Freshman of the Year, while Xavier's Jack Nunge won the Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor.
Butler faced St. John's in the first game of the tournament Wednesday minus center Manny Bates (a transfer from NC State) and guard Eric Hunter (a transfer from Purdue) for failing to meet the "academic expectations of the program," according to a school statement. Both players have already graduated with undergraduate degrees from their former institutions and are attending Butler as grad students.
Providence will face UConn Thursday afternoon at 2:30 at Madison Square Garden – the first time the two rivals have met in the Big East Tournament since 1998. That year, the Huskies were the tourney top seed and defeated the 8-seeded Friars in the quarterfinal round 64-55. Overall, PC and UConn have only met four times in tourney history, with each team having won twice. Notably, the Friars beat UConn as a five-seed over the #4 Huskies 73-55 in 1993, and then beat them again as a four-seed (Connecticut was #1) in 1994 on the way to their first-ever Big East title.
