Big East's top player should be a Wildcat, Hilliard says

NEW YORK - Always a team guy throughout his Villanova career, Darrun Hilliard found fault Wednesday with the fact that the Big East Conference preseason player of the year did not come from his team.

"It's wrong. I think it's wrong," Hilliard said during Big East media day at Madison Square Garden. "I don't believe it. It is what it is. They have their opinions. I don't understand it. We'll see at the end of the year."

In a vote of the league's coaches, Georgetown junior guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera was chosen as the preseason player of the year. Smith-Rivera finished third in the Big East in scoring last season with a 17.6-point average.

Hilliard grouped the four Villanova players - himself, JayVaughn Pinkston, Ryan Arcidiacono, and Daniel Ochefu - in attendance as potential player-of-the-year candidates. Hilliard and Ochefu shared most-improved-player honors after last season.

"If you pick the team to win it all, that team should have the player of the year," he said.

Smith-Rivera had one big supporter.

"He's a natural scorer," said teammate Jabril Trawick, a former star at Abington Friends. "He can flat-out shoot the basketball. He's got a great IQ as a basketball player. It's great to be his teammate and having him on the team."

Waiting his turn. Trawick sat out five games after suffering a broken jaw at midseason and said he spent his time on the sideline learning what he needed to do to be more effective on the court.

"I think it helped my whole game," the 6-foot-5 senior guard said. "People will be able to see me on the ball a lot more this year doing different stuff and making more plays.

"That just came with time and being patient. I just had to wait my turn."

Before you know it . . . For the second season in a row, the Big East will open its conference schedule with a New Year's Eve quintuple-header, with all five games being televised on Fox Sports 1. Villanova has the second game of the day, a 2:30 p.m. matchup with Butler at the Pavilion.

Defending regular-

season champion Villanova was a unanimous selection to repeat at the top of the Big East for 2014-15 in a vote of the conference's coaches.

Georgetown edged St. John's for second place. The Red Storm were followed by Xavier and Providence. The Friars won last season's Big East tournament.

The Wildcats placed one player - senior forward JayVaughn Pinkston - on the preseason all-Big East first team, and two players - junior guard Ryan Arcidiacono and senior guard Darrun Hilliard - on the second team.

St. John's guard Rysheed Jordan, a former Vaux High School star, also made the second team.

Georgetown guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera was named preseason player of the year, while Seton Hall's Isaiah Whitehead was tabbed as rookie of the year.

1. Villanova

2. Georgetown

3. St. John's

4. Xavier

5. Providence

6. Seton Hall

7. Butler

(tie) Marquette

9. Creighton

10. DePaul

EndText