Fisher, Cunningham, Wright win Big East honors
posted by Pete @ LetsGoNova.com3/10/2009 06:12:00 PM
All of the Big East Conference awards have now been announced, and Villanova did very well for itself, earning some nice accolades across a variety of categories.
Villanova backup point guard Corey Fisher won the Big East's 6th Man award, which goes to the player who makes the greatest positive impact off the bench.
This site has been saying for a long, long time that Fisher should get more minutes, and this award seems to validate that position. Unless the player is a 6th-man specialist like Manu Ginobili, winning the 6th man award probably means the player should be starting!
Still, it's a nice honor for Fisher, whose improvement this year has brought Villanova much success.
Speaking of improvement, Villanova's senior forward Dante Cunningham was named the conference's Most-Improved Player on the year. Cunningham has stepped up his scoring output this season after playing a more limited offensive role his first three years.
Villanova's head coach Jay Wright earned Big East Coach of the Year honors. Although it is hard to see how Marquette's Buzz Williams did not win this award, Wright's COY honors are a nice acknowledgment of the team's success this year after a somewhat slow start.
Villanova opened the conference play by losing two of its first three games, but the season really picked up after the Wildcats were able to beat then #3 Pittsburgh in the last college basketball game ever at the Spectrum. Villanova now sits poised to earn a top-4 seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament.
Wright's selection as coach of the year is not something I necessarily agree with, given the questionable substitution and end-game strategy decisions made this year, but it is still nice for Villanova to take home the award. Wright and Villanova last won Big East COY in 2005-2006, when Villanova earned a #1 seed in the NCAA torunament.
Dante Cunningham was also named to the All-Big-East second-team, and junior guard Scottie Reynolds earned a Big East Honorable Mention.
Villanova backup point guard Corey Fisher won the Big East's 6th Man award, which goes to the player who makes the greatest positive impact off the bench.
This site has been saying for a long, long time that Fisher should get more minutes, and this award seems to validate that position. Unless the player is a 6th-man specialist like Manu Ginobili, winning the 6th man award probably means the player should be starting!
Still, it's a nice honor for Fisher, whose improvement this year has brought Villanova much success.
Speaking of improvement, Villanova's senior forward Dante Cunningham was named the conference's Most-Improved Player on the year. Cunningham has stepped up his scoring output this season after playing a more limited offensive role his first three years.
Villanova's head coach Jay Wright earned Big East Coach of the Year honors. Although it is hard to see how Marquette's Buzz Williams did not win this award, Wright's COY honors are a nice acknowledgment of the team's success this year after a somewhat slow start.
Villanova opened the conference play by losing two of its first three games, but the season really picked up after the Wildcats were able to beat then #3 Pittsburgh in the last college basketball game ever at the Spectrum. Villanova now sits poised to earn a top-4 seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament.
Wright's selection as coach of the year is not something I necessarily agree with, given the questionable substitution and end-game strategy decisions made this year, but it is still nice for Villanova to take home the award. Wright and Villanova last won Big East COY in 2005-2006, when Villanova earned a #1 seed in the NCAA torunament.
Dante Cunningham was also named to the All-Big-East second-team, and junior guard Scottie Reynolds earned a Big East Honorable Mention.
Labels: awards, Big East, coach of the year, corey fisher, Dante Cunningham, Jay Wright, scottie reynolds
81 Comments:
Congrats to Fisher, Dante, Wright, and Scottie.
Never miss an opportunity to hate on Jay do you?
You mean by posting that he won COY, and congratulating him?
quit being so coy pete
;-)
#6 -- what a great comment. Hi hataz!!!!!
Well those "compliments" about Wright are as backhanded as you can get....but I guess you had to say it that way to try and avoid being completly owned. Apparently there are some pretty sharp basketball minds that don't agree with your assessment of Wright.....what a freaking surprise!
Well done doushe bag...Jay EARNS Big East C.O.Y. and you use it as an opportunity to hate on him by saying Buzz Williams should have been COY?????? Buzz Williams inherited a good team; a team that would have had as much success as they had regardless of who their coach was.
The Big East coaches (good coaches which include Calhoun, Boeheim, and Patino) think Jay is a great coach...stop acting like you have any hint of basketball know-how. Your a terrible blogger with even worse insite and opinions. Well done Jay; excellent job this year. You deserve it.
Go Nova
#8.... threatening over the net... really cool.
Wright did not just win BE COY in 2005-2006, he also won the freaking NATIONAL COACH OF THE YEAR. Did you repress that memory, or mentally strip him of the award because of his failure to play Grant and Fisher up to your liking?
I also would love to see Fisher start and think he's earned that right, but the 6th man award does not mean a player should be starting. It means the player is the best 6th man. It means he was the best player off the bench. It means when Fisher came in he ignited the offense.
Bare with me here, but if Clark wasn't a starter and won 6th man of the year, I'm sure you wouldn't have been saying that means he should start.
It's find to have an opinion, and this is your blog, but does your opinion have to permeate EVERYTHING you write? A tiny bit of objectivity can't hurt.
How can Buzz Williams be COY? I can coach the Knicks to 5th in the Big East.
That is still your best. argument. ever.
Buzz gets credit for having 3 senior NBA talent guards, and no player over 6'8" who logs meaningful minutes. Hmm, who does that sound a lot like?
I bet if you watched MU every day, that within a season of this class being gone you'd start hating on Buzz Williams for his game tactics and substitutions. My point is it's easy to be a critic when you follow a team a closely as you do. Try taking a step back to see the big picture every now and then.
IMKL
You have got to be kidding me. The sentence was not about national coach of the year. The sentence says "Wright last won BE COY in 2005-2006." Which is simply informing readers when was the last time he won the award.
You have got to be really trying to hard to read anything into that sentence.
the 8th comment (which threatened to kill me) has been removed... so the new #8 is not related to the old #8.
Marquette was pre-season picked #16 in the nation. They finished the season #21. And you think it is hard to see how their coach did not win COY?
Also, you think a day when the coaches voted Wright COY validated your opinion that Fisher was mishandled?
If Villanova finished 5 spots lower than their pre-season national ranking, would you then endorse Jay Wright for Big East Coach of the Year?
Are you really that upset over Malcolm Grant? You realize that Malcolm grabbed no rebounds and only had 2 steals all last year (so he will fit in well in the ACC)?
I think Williams had the toughest task, taking over a team that had just lost its longtime coach. Yes, they had talent, but it's still an amazing effort to get that team playing so well all season.
I don't think Wright should have won, but good for him, and it's great for the school.
These awards are all subjective anyway. You can't really "prove me wrong" that Wright was better than Williams this year -- it is an opinion.
And LOL@ #15 bringing up Malcolm grant -- totally irrelevant to this post.
Malcolm Grant is gone, and he's not coming back, and there is nothing we can do about it. Just like the Big East Tournament Double Bye.
By the way, what time does Villanova play tomorrow?
@17,
I think we're playing in the Spectrum tomorrow night at 7. See you there!
Ummm, Buzz Williams was an assistant under Crean.
Did you even know that? I would not be surprised if you did not, considering how little research you do to back up your points.
@#19
Oh yeah, I love playing this game, Assuming Shit With No Basis. Well played. I am now going to assume you did not know America ever landed on the moon. That happened!/
Did you even know that? I would not be surprised if you did not, considering how little research you do to back up your points.
Marquette was preseason 16
finished the reg season at 21
Villanova was preseason 23
finished the reg season at 10
What is your problem with Jay Wright? Why do you hate him? Don't hate Jay because he is not as good a coach as your grammar school coach.
I don't think you can even find a Marquette fan who would have picked Buzz's effort over Jay's.
And let's welcome the famous "ncaaball2" to the blog!
I don't think "coach of the year" is really determined by who has the biggest improvement vs. expectations.
Anyway, your numbers don't take into account the catastrophic injury of Dom James -- and Marquette was #10 before he was injured.
And as I have said 1,000 times, I do not hate Jay Wright. I happen to like him.
I just have some issues with his in-game decisions. And yes, my grammar school coach probably was a better X and O guy than Wright -- that man could coach!
This guy's entire argument for Buzz is that he had to implement a "new system." Because there is no way the results back up Williams over Jay.
I bet this New Jersey Italian didn't even know that Buzz Williams was an assistant under Crean. That's how poor this guy is at researching before he posts.
So if Jay had a player injured, and then lost all his games after the injury, his stock would rise in your eyes?
haha, #25 --
Do you think that by injecting ethnicity and geography into your argument, you can gain an upper hand? This isn't the confederacy of dunces that is your favorite little message board -- my readers are even dumber.
Oh, and please click on a few ads on your way out.
Guys just give up Pete uses this stuff to attract people to this site. Look what he is doing to us, he is turning us into bitter people like the St.Joe's fans. We should just stop coming here. We know Jay is a good x and o coach and can develop talent. Buzz Williams will be similar to Larry Coker at Miami he came into a good situation had one good year and then will fizzle out over time.
Buzz Williams is a poor man's Steve Fisher.
By the way -- to anyone calling me crazy, Tim Seeman at Bleacher Report wrote a very nice piece on why Buzz Williams should be national coach of the year -- not just BE COY.
So clearly Williams was a contender.
every coach makes poor decisions in every game. there's not a coach in the country that coaches a perfect game every time out. get over yourself and realize that Jay Wright is a winner.
What part of "congrats to Wright" is hating on him, I would love to know?
that article was written over a month ago. need to take the whole season into account chief.
I did. I am just saying I am not the only one who thinks he was a contender.
you hated on him all season long you mess. one post saying congratulations doesn't make up for all the trash you published over the course of the season.
key word = was. you know...a month ago.
Marquette was 3-6 since that article was written. And James only missed the games at pitt, louisville and against syracuse.
Do you smoke crack cocaine for fun, or you an addict?
Great article. That was before Marquette fell out of the top 20, right?
I sure am pissed that Villanova is up 13 spots from our pre-season ranking. I wish we were down 5 spots. (and nova is up 6 spots from marquette's pre-season ranking)
Ncaaball2,
If you are going to post here, at least do us the pleasure of using your world-famous handle, the one with the 30,000 posts.
pete, you respond to the Anons which you vowed not to do.
i think #11 made some great points, especially since he references things you say
pete - please ignore the anons, but please don't delete their death threats, i find them amusing.
Some of these commentators should try starting their own site where they post all their own opinions -- they will very quickly learn that no matter what you say, someone will disagree with you.
So if Jay Wright can win coach of the year in the Big East two times during his tenure without any X and O coaching ability is he just plain lucky? How do you explain his success? Do the big east coaches vote for him out of pity because they, like you think he is a sham?
Also with this year, you do realize Nova extends a streak that we share along with Pittsburgh as the only two schools to make the tourney 5 straight years from this beast of a conference? How does a man who has less X and O ability than your grammar school coach guide his team to this success?
Buzz Williams?
If you were going to bash Jay, there were so many better options than Buzz Williams.
You wanted a guy taking over and exceeding expectations? Keno Davis.
You want a guy who took an unheralded team to the dance? Huggins.
You wanted a guy who had a great season, like Jay? Dixon, Pitino or Calhoun would fit.
There were 5 other coaches besides Jay who were more deserving of this award than Buzz Williams was.
I consider Buzz Williams' season to be a disappointment.
@ 44
Well maybe that should tell you that my goal was to give my opinion, not to bash Jay. As you said, if I wanted to bash Jay, I had a lot of better options.
Jay Wright is not a good in-game coach. Deal with it.
Pete = FOOL...FOOL....Fill in the blanks.
Only this grad of some other school could take a great day for Villanova Basketball and make it a negatie. OUTSTANDING JOB JAY!
And Moron (I mean Pete), 6th man is 6th man...AND DOES NOT MEAN HE SHOULD BE STARTING. Great job Corey!
....oh by the way.....Dante was All Big East 2nd team Pete. You almost forgot. Way to go TAE33!
Great article on Jay's award by Mike Kern...
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/sports/41075447.html
Buzz Williams????????? you gotta be freakin' kiddin' me!
Bob Ford: Jay Wright's accomplishments ---
"This might not be the best team Wright has had in his eight years as Villanova coach, but this season has been his best coaching accomplishment. He was recognized for that yesterday, earning his second coach of the year award in voting by the conference coaches. Unlike the 2005-06 season, however, when he won the award for the first time, Wright doesn't have two first-round NBA draft picks in the huddle. What he has is a deep and experienced team that is all about the sum exceeding the parts."
Bravo Jay!!
Why is Jay criticized for tactical in game decisions, whereas Buzz is credited for his "system"?
You are judging them on different criteria.
Who do you think did better in terms of implementing their system and getting their team to play above expectations?
Who do you think is the better tactical coach, and why?
You know nothing about basketball coaching. Your comments all year about Jay Wright are so wrong. I only came to your site to see if you would write something positive but yet you can't. Good bye!
There sure is a lot of anger on this site. Who cares what Pete thinks. He's entitled to his opinions.
Nova had a great year, Jay Wright may not be the greatest coach in the world but he does get the most out of his players. He's 1000 times better than JT III and Mike Brey. What a disastrous year they both had. Let's root for St Johns today. GO CATS!
Buzz Williams and Marquette lost their final 4 games of the season.
this blogger probably didn't even know that!!
Pete has his opinion, it is not going to change. I disagree with his opinion. Many other people more intelligent and knowledgeable about college basketball obviously disagree with Pete. I believe this makes Pete's opinion invalid. Everyone else should accept this as well. It does not matter what he says. Honestly I visit Nova Hoops blogs more for the comments on posts than posts themselves. Pete has pretty effectively kept these comments negative for the entire season. The spread of his negativity spoils what good commenters could do with this site. Everyone here should work to take back this blog to discuss things other than Pete's meritless opinions.
That said....I think Nova could go deep into the BE Tourney this year. Marquette and Louisville are both beatable and I think that they are the 2 most difficult teams we would have to go through in order to get to the finals game. If St Johns somehow beat marquette, which actually isnt totally out of the question considering how Marquette has been unable to adjust from losing DJ, then Nova would have a very easy first game in this tourney. I look for Scottie to continue his tear and Stokes to rain threes in MSG.
Geesus....great post. You are so right. What Pete doesn't even realize is that the posters own this blog and have been in control for awhile now. Our Mr. Negative just rolls his negativity out into Wildcat land to see it get blown away by people that actually know something about Villanova basketball.
Geesus,
You act like my pick of Buzz Williams is soooo outrageous. It's not. Many "knowledgeable" basketball minds have praised Williams, including Pat Forde, yesterday.
Coach of the year is a subjective thing. You are just as subjective as me. If you think that Jay Wright was the objectively right choice and that it is a FACT, you are losing it.
@57 -- What the hell are you talking about? "Negativity"? This entire post was about congratulating Fisher, Cunningham, and Wright for their awards. I fail to see any negativity in it at all. But continue to believe that you are in charge of this blog.
57 here....We are in charge Pete...you just keep it rolling.
You are so wrong...all the time... the COY was voted by the Coaches who Jay competes with. They use WHATEVER CRITERIA they feel is appropriate. Suffice it to say that of the 15 other coaches, I am so glad we have our guy!
Negativity.....
"Villanova's head coach Jay Wright earned Big East Coach of the Year honors. Although it is hard to see how Marquette's Buzz Williams did not win this award, Wright's COY honors are a nice acknowledgment of the team's success this year after a somewhat slow start."
The COY award RePete is in recognition of the Jay taking this team to a place where it wasn't expected. Your backhanded slam is obvious pal.
Exactly 59 -- How is this negative?
"Villanova's head coach Jay Wright earned Big East Coach of the Year honors. Although it is hard to see how Marquette's Buzz Williams did not win this award, Wright's COY honors are a nice acknowledgment of the team's success this year after a somewhat slow start."
There is nothing at all negative in this paragraph. I congratulated Jay even though I said I thought it should go to Buzz. That's two positives.
In summary, you said "Congratulations Jay, even though I don't think you deserved it."
If don't see the negativity in that, then I don't know what to say.
Pete, if you could trade Jay Wright for Buzz Williams right now, would you make that switch?
Peter
I did not comment on your suggestion of Buzz Williams. I think that he is a fine coach that did a very good job this year. I just believe, like all the coaches in the big east that voted for him, that Jay Wright did the best overall coaching job this year. Again that is just my opinion, which is shared by many others. It is also only my opinion that your opinion is misguided and without merit.
I just realized that there is very little chance that we get to play WVU again this year. This is too bad, I really wanted our guys to get another crack at them. WVU basketball has always been a pain in the ass of Nova hoops for as long as I have been watching. I would have really liked to have seen us thrash them before the season ended. I hope the RedStorm takes it marquette and wears them out for tomorrows game.
62,
Yes, I would, but that's a ridiculous question because it could never happen.
Pete, so just to clarify, you would indeed trade Jay Wright for Buzz Williams?
You would get rid of the guy who consistently brings in top 5 recruiting classes, projects a great image for the school, and has given us more success than we've had in the last 30 years...
for a guy who has been in charge of Marquette for 1 season, has talent comparable or better than Nova, yet finished behind them in rankings and standings?
All this because you think Wright has made some poor in-game decisions? How many poor in-game decisions did Williams make this year? Or Calhoun? Or Roy Williams? Or Tom Izzo?
Re #65, I meant to say for the last 20 years.
Yeah, 65, I would. But it's pointless to talk about it, because there is no trading of college basketball coaches.
I think Williams is as good a recruiter as Wright (Williams also has a top 10 class coming in next season) and has a big edge over him in game-strategy decisions.
Anyway, what's the point? Wright is staying at Villanova, and Williams is not leaving Marquette -- and if he does it won't be for Villanova anyway.
Re 66... "I think Williams... has a big edge over him in game-strategy decisions."
HOW?
What does Buzz Williams do better than Wright in terms of in-game management?
Personally, I have no idea who is a better in game coach because I haven't studied both of their decisions throughout the season. If you have, can you explain why Williams is better, without simply saying that Wright is bad?
I would tend to lean toward the guy who has more prolonged success as the better coach.
Anyone catch Buzz's halftime interview just now?
The man is an in-game coaching genius. I would love to ever hear Wright cite in a halftime interview exactly how many ball screens the other team set in previous games -- "88", "55," -- or ever hold a high major division one school to 10 points at the half.
Wright is a decent coach but he does not compare to Buzz Williams.
Pete...if you want Buzz Williams instead of Jay you need to become a Marquette fan. What planet have you been on the last 8 years? You should really get out more and actually see the Wildcats play instead of sitting in your easy chair and sending your missives day and night. Foolish. Just foolish.
You go take Buzz Williams, Pete or is it repeat? -- the rest of us want to stay with Jay Wright.
Signed,
The Blog Owners
Pete you've had some good points from time to time about Jay's decision making, but you are totally busted right now with him winning Coach of the Year. Considering the award is voted on by his peer coaches it's a real honor for him, and I'm pretty sure the other BE coaches know what they're talking about.
Ummm... 72
I said it was a nice honor for him. So where do we disagree?
Pete needs to be banished from Nova Nation. He's a Benedict Arnold. Claiming he would rather have that slop Buzz Williams.
Pete, you discount Jay's coaching during 2005-2006 when it's brought up, because he had so much NBA talent. You make that stupid Knicks in the BE argument, that anyone could coach them to the top due to their superior talent.
So Buzz Williams inherits 3 NBA guards (who are also SENIORS!), and coaches them to a good, but not great, season. Buzz gets props from you for that, but Jay gets discredited for it in 2005-2006. Okay....
On top of that logic flip-flop, you use a tiny small sample size to prefer him over Jay Wright? Okay....
If you watched EVERY marquette game, you'd undoubtedly harp on something you hate that he does. No one is perfect, and if you watched 30+ marquette games a year, you'd see the in-game coaching genius of Buzz williams, isn't necessarily so.
Who cares that they held a D1 school to 10 points! Again, small sample size, plus it cannot be directly attributed to coaching.
I can cite one small sample size too... the 2nd Marquette game. Why did Buzz not press us ONCE? It worked in recent years under Crean, and it worked wonders in the 1st Marquette game this year.
Jay Wright consistently brought this team back from 2nd half deficits with adjustments, both this year and more-so last year; most notable being the Clemson game last year, and this years game vs SJU.
You are entitled to your opinion.... just pick your supporting arguments better.
Just Sayin...
Actually, IMKL (75),
I have always said Jay did a GREAT job in 05-06. Playing 4 guard to match his talent was a great move. Where I disagree with him is largely after that. Go back and read whenever I write about 05-06 -- I totally agree JW was COY that year.
I'm sure you appreciated it back then, but you haven't this year... you look back on the 2005-2006 year and handicap him based on the talent. Hence your Knicks argument you've used on at least 2 occasions. I could be pulling a Clemens and "misremembering" how you used that Knicks argument, so set me straight if I'm incorrect.
You had a much different opinion of Jay Wright pre-2007. This blog had a much different 'atmosphere' as well.
I think it is all in people's heads, I really do. Somewhere between now and 2007, people started jumping down my throat any time I said anything that wasn't officially positive.
My opinion of Nova hoops and my outlook on bloggin' have not changed.
"In game decisions", "X's and O's"... The site narrarator uses key phrases and words he learned while reading a Seth Davis article 7 years ago and regurgitates in whatever manner makes Jay look bad. His stumbling/bumbling arguments are similar to a 3rd grader explaining Foucault's Pendulum or the String Theory. We should have a live audio chat one time with the site host so he cannot avoid the valid points made over and over again here. He consistently picks out the nonsensical 5% of the posted materials to comment on because he has no answer for the rest. It's not worth even writing to him. I agree with Geesus. If you want to comment ignore the jackass. He won't comment on valid arguments. He never has. I've posted plenty of them. I can find them if you want Pete. They were not even mean sprited, I just wanted your feedback. The problem was they made sense so he picked a post 5 people before me to answer and slam which was clearly posted for humor only.
Pete sucks... hopefully Marquette sucks more. They are pretty anxious to prove themselves right now. People have been doubting them hard since DJ went down even though they were already trailing off well before that injury. Don't really care about the game but it would be a nice bonus.
Lastly, chicken parm for the team tonight if anyone was wondering. Normally a good energizer for Fish... tends to slow down Redding though.
JWPC,
I am sorry you feel I have ignored your comments in the past. In the future, I will keep a special eye out for them. Friends again?
XOXO,
Pete
Lets face it gang, for whatever reason, RePete doesnt like Jay. The funny thing is that win or lose tonight, I can write RePete's posts -- hence my new name for him. Go Wildcats!
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