Villanova’s Hart named Player of the Year
Villanova’s Josh Hart was named the Big East Player of the Year Wednesday in a vote of conference head coaches.
Josh Hart earned AllRookie honors as a freshman, was the Dave Gavitt Award winner as the Most Outstanding Player in the Big East Tournament as a sophomore and a unanimous All-Big East firstteam selection as a junior and senior.
There was only one honor missing from his resume: Big East Player of the Year.
The 6-5 guard scratched that award from his bucket list Wednesday when he was named the conference’s top player in a vote of conference head coaches. The award was the final in a series of honors released Wednesday.
Butler’s Chris Holtmann was named Coach of the Year. Bulldogs center Justin Patton is the Freshman of the Year and Billy Garrett Jr. was named as the Scholar Athlete of the Year.
Hart is the fourth Villanova player to receive the Player of the Year honor. Guards Kerry Kittles (1995), Randy Foye (2006) and Ryan Arcidiacono (cowinner with Providence’s Kris Dunn in 2015) are the other Wildcats to earn the award. Hart is the first player to win the Dave Gavitt and Player of the Year awards.
The honor does not come as a surprise. Hart was the frontrunner for the award and is a finalist for the Naismith Award as the national Player of the Year as well as one of five players being considered for the Julius Erving Award, which is given to the nation’s top small forward. This despite Hart being officially listed as a guard by the Wildcats.
Hart averaged 18.6 points and 6.5 rebounds per game to lead the second-ranked Wildcats (28-3) to their fourth straight outright Big East regular-season title. He won the Big East scoring title (18.2 ppg.), finished fourth in conference play in rebounding, sixth in steals (1.5) and ninth in assist/turnover margin (1.7). He and Kittles are the only players in Villanova history to accumulate at least 1,800 points, 700 rebounds, 250 assists and 150 steals in a career.