Kolek, Carter named all-conference
The Big East scoring champ hailing from Providence College, and the Cumberland native who found a home at Marquette, found themselves cut from the same cloth on Sunday.
Devin Carter and Tyler Kolek garnered unanimous selection to the Big East all-conference first team, a distinction that keeps the door open for them to be named the league’s player of the year. That announcement will come on Wednesday.
It could be Carter or Kolek, or UConn teammates Cam Spencer and Tristen Newton, Creighton’s Baylor Scheierman and Seton Hall’s Kadary Richmond. Those six names comprised the six-person All-Big East First Team with Kolek the lone player to repeat as a first-team selection.
After Saturday’s 74-60 loss to UConn, PC head coach Kim English weighed in on Carter’s Player of the Year candidacy.
“Kevin Kurbec [PC’s Associated Athletic Director for Men’s & Women’s Basketball] and I filled out [the ballot] the other day. Usually, I let one of the graduate assistants do that stuff. I don’t care about awards,” said English. “Kevin asked about me about the player of the year and I said ‘Devin Carter.’ He said, ‘Well, you can’t vote for your own player.’ I think he’s the most valuable.”
It will be interesting to see if the Big East coaches – the ones who are supposed to vote on all postseason-related recognition – truly feel that Carter merits consideration for the league’s top individual honor. Despite leading the conference in scoring at 21.4 ppg, Carter plays on a team that finished 10-10 in league play and earned the No. 7 seed in the upcoming Big East Tournament. Traditionally, the Big East Player of the Year comes from a team that finished high up in the standings.
Kolek’s quest to repeat as Big East Player of the Year may have lost some steam after the Marquette guard missed the final three games of the regular season with an oblique injury. Before going down, the local lad was handing out 7.6 assists per contest while adding 15 ppg.
Two additional Providence players received Big East honors as Josh Oduro was named to the honorable mention team while Rich Barron was one of six players named to the all-freshman team.