Newton, Spencer named to All-Big East first team

PROVIDENCE — If Saturday night at the Amica Mutual Pavilion was a referendum on who the Big East Player of the Year should be, the answer was as loud and clear as the UConn men’s basketball team’s victory over Providence.

There was Providence’s Devin Carter, spectacular and omnipresent over the game’s first five minutes, hitting 3-pointers from all over the floor, blocking shots, knocking down a jumper that gave the Friars a 15-2 lead. Then largely quiet after that, scoring most of the rest of his 24 points in a second half that was little more than garbage time.

And there was UConn’s Tristen Newton, slowly and steadily guiding the Huskies through the bad start, scoring half of UConn’s 16 points in one stretch that turned a sixpoint deficit into a sevenpoint lead. He finished with an unspectacular 12 points on 3-for-12 shooting, but also grabbed a team-high eight rebounds (remember, he’s a 6-foot-5 guard) and doled out five assists.

And, most importantly, got the win.

Ultimately, Saturday night was not a referendum on Big East Player of the Year, because the votes had already been cast by the league’s coaches, due the day before. The official announcement won’t be made until Wednesday afternoon at Madison Square Garden, along with Coach of the Year, Freshma of the Year and the Scholar-Athlete Award.

On Monday afternoon, the league will announce winners of its Sixth Man Award, Sportsmanship Award and Most Improved Player.

In the meantime, Newton and Carter are both members of the Big East all-conference first team, which was announced on Sunday afternoon. They’re joined by Marquette’s Tyler Kolek, Creighton’s Baylor Scheierman and Newton’s UConn teammate, Cam Spencer.

Donovan Clingan earned honorable mention status. Somewhat surprisingly, Alex Karaban was shut out. Karaban also lost out on Big East Freshman of the Year last season to Villanova’s Cam Whitmore, something that still bothers Hurley. But despite these snubs, Karaban has a bright future, per his coach.

“He’s one of the best players, future first-ro

und draft pick, because the right people see the value in all the different things he does on the court,” Hurley said. “He’s a perfect player for the modern game with the shooting and the passing.”

Newton, Carter, Kolek and Scheierman were all unanimous first-team picks, meaning all could still be named Player of the Year. Hurley clearly believes Newton should win the award. He leads the league’s far-and-away best team in scoring, rebounding and assists. He’s notched a pair of triple-doubles, which coupled with the two he recorded last season are the most in UConn history. He’s on just about every national awards watch list you can think of (Wooden, Naismith, etc.). And, of course, he’s already a national champion.

“The back of his baseball card right now is pretty impressive,” the coach said of Newton. “The production, the championships ... it’s not quite Mickey Mantle rookie card, but he’s had as good a run as any player’s had in two years here.”

Make no mistake, Hurley was very complimentary of Carter, as well.

“He’s like a plug-andplay NBA player, whenever he decides to go. I’m not trying to push him out the door so Providence is worse next year, like a lot of coaches have done to us. It’s hard not to admire him.”

But beat out Newton for Player of the Year, or even share the award with Newton? No way, per Hurley. The only other acceptable outcome, Hurley said, would be for Newton to share the award with Spencer.

To the surprise of no one, Stephon Castle was a unanimous choice for the leagues all-freshman team. That means he’ll be announced as Freshman of the Year on Wednesday in the most lopsided landslide victory since Reagan-Mondale.

Typically, Hurley wants more for the soonto-be NBA lottery pick.

“He deserves consideration for Freshman of the Year, because of what he does for his team, nationally,” the coach said. “Obviously, the Big East goes without saying.”

On Sunday, Castle won his 11th Big East Freshman of the Week award, breaking Carmelo Anthony’s record. Last week, he surpassed Allen Iverson.

“It’s a cool stat to think about,” the soft-spoken Georgian said, “but at the end of the day, if we don’t win the Big East or complete what our team goals are, I don’t think it really matters.”

That’s classic Castle, according to Hurley.

“The way he plays for us as a freshman, the egoless, ‘Hey Coach, who am I guarding? I’ll get on the backboard, I’ll play with physicality, that was a bad shot Coach, I won’t take that one again.’ It’s rare that a five-star freshman who’ve had their ass kissed their entire grassroots lives, carry themselves over the course of their freshman year the way he does.”

Indeed, “ego-less” can describe this entire roster of UConn players.

“We want team awards, like championships,” Newton said. “We don’t have the awards that we want yet. We want championships. We don’t really care about personal awards. I mean, it’ll be cool, whatever Steph, AK, Donovan, Cam get. Coach, we know what Coach deserves. It’ll be cool for everybody to get their awards they deserve, but we’re looking forward to team awards.”

Ah yes, “Coach.” Hurley certainly deserves Big East Coach of the Year, which will also be announced on Wednesday. Heck, he’s a frontrunner for National Coach of the Year. But will his conference coaching brethren concur? Could Seton Hall’s Shaheen Holloway, who’s guided the Pirates to a fourth-place finish after being picked to finish ninth, be a more popular choice?

“I don’t win a lot of popularity contests,” Hurley said on Friday. “My thing is, the places that I coach, they love me and everyone else hates me. As long as they love me and these other fanbases hate me, I know that I’m doing the job that UConn wants me to do. We’re winning, and we’re winning in impressive fashion. And there’s a lot of hate.”