Remember last year, when everyone was saying the 2014 NBA Draft was going to be really strong?

Turns out, that wasn't the case. In fact, if memory serves me correct, every draft in recent years that was supposed to be strong hasn't really turned out to be. And isn't that really to be expected these days?

Essentially, every draft is going to be filled with one-and-done guys, many of whom are talented but still question marks, and college juniors or seniors, who are often labeled as not having been good enough to go pro earlier. Sure, every now and then there's a Carmelo Anthony or Kevin Durant or Blake Griffin who is obviously going to be a star after a year or two of college. But these days, its seems, the NBA Draft -- almost by definition -- is filled with question marks.

That could help or hurt Shabazz Napier and DeAndre Daniels. Napier's draft stock has certainly been rising lately, what with a second national title and several impressive NBA workouts under his belt. The mock drafts seem to have him in the No. 20-25 range. An NBA scout I talked to pegs him anywhere from No. 18-30 (which, of course, still means a first-round pick).

Although Napier isn't likely to be a lottery pick, he has enough star power to have been invited to do a media availability along with 19 other big names (Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker, Marcus Smart, etc.) at The Westin New York at Times Square, and he'll be in the "Green Room" for Thursday night's draft, as well.

DeAndre Daniels may be hurt by the weaker nature of this year's draft, however. Most feel he'll probably go somewhere in the middle of the second. Maybe a little higher, but not in the first round, it would appear.

Of course, as Kevin Ollie points out, it only takes one NBA GM to like you enough to pick you in the first round. But as another NBA scout told me, teams with late first-round picks this year are more likely to go with foreign players than with U.S.-born kids they're not exactly enamored with. At least they can stash the European kids overseas for a couple of years and hope they improve, rather than take a risk on a college kid who'd get guaranteed money.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand basketball. Or basketball recruiting.

But Josh Sharma's dad just so happens to be a rocket scientist. Well, an aeronautical engineer, to be exact. And his mom's a psychiatrist. The point? Sharma comes from good, well-educated stock.

Oh, and the 7-footer from Lexington, Mass. isn't too bad at basketball, either.



Sharma, a Class of 2015 center who plays at Northfield Mount Hermon and with Mass Rivals AAU, took an unofficial visit to UConn on Tuesday. He accompanied his AAU teammate, guard Jalen Adams, but the two are not -- repeat, not -- a package deal.

"Absolutely not," said Mass Rivals coach Vin Pastore. "It just so happened I was taking Jalen to Connecticut and I said (to Sharma), why don't you and your mom go down? It was more out of convenience than anything else. What's best for one might not be the best for the other."

Still, it seems both players are tailor-made for UConn. We've already chronicled just how perfect a fit it would appear Adams would be for the Huskies. The '15 guard from Roxbury is profoundly clutch and is a born leader, on top of his terrific talent. Sound like anyone we know?

"He's an electrifying guy," said Pastore. "He's super-talented and he's extremely athletic. That may be a potential separator from Shabazz (Napier)."

Pastore has grown up following UConn basketball. He's a Massachusetts guy, but former Mass Rival/UConn recruit Scott Hazelton grew up in his home.

"Jalen's a super athlete with great understanding of the game, and the kid's a winner," Pastore said. "He's a UConn type of guy. It would be pretty hard (for UConn) not to be high on his list. They're coming off a national championship, the freedom they give their guards to play, the fact Shabazz just graduated and is going to the NBA as a Boston kid himself. I think a lot of things make UConn look awfully good for a kid like Jalen."

Then there's Sharma.

"He's a 7-footer that can run and catch," Pastore said. "He's got a size-15 foot that's small compared to the size of his body. That's why he moves so gracefully and runs so nice. He plays above the rim and challenges you at the rim. A lot of people look at him as fitting the UConn style of play."

Sharma arrived at Northfield Mount Hermon two years ago after only playing a couple of minutes a game at Lexington High. Now, he's one of the top players in the country.

"I think that's part of the improvements he's made, but it also says that there's a lot of upside to his game, too," said Northfield Mount Hermon coach John Carroll. "He’s as athletic as it comes. We’ve coached 60 D-1 kids and he’s probably the most athletic kid we’ve coached at 7-foot.”

Carrolll continued: "When I really knew he was different was, early on, when he was going up for a layup, it looked like his only option, and he decided to try something else and went up on the other side reversing it. That was last thing we thought he’d wind up doing. I said to my assistant, he’s gonna show us stuff we’ve never seen before because of his athleticism. We have to keep an open mind, see what he's capable of and then coach, not coach restricting what his creativity is."

Carroll said he lets Sharma shoot 3's because he's proven he can hit them, and also has a good jump-hook in his repertoire and is studying great face-up guys like Tim Duncan and Kevin Durant to model his skills after them.

"The fun part about coaching him is that the conversation his brain has with his body is pretty elite," Carroll noted. "Give him instruction, he'll do it immediately."

And like his parents, who recently moved from Lexington to Hawaii, Sharma is smart, too. He recently scored a 31 on his ACT's, according to Carroll (the high score is 36).

Carroll said Sharma's visit to UConn was great and that he had visited Boston College the day before. This summer, he's planning a Midwest tour to see Ohio State, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Northwestern and Michigan. The only official he's made so far has been to Wisconsin, back in January.

*** Meanwhile, UConn offered an in-state kid on Tuesday: Steve Enoch, a 6-9 power forward out of Norwalk who's generated a lot of buzz lately.

“Steve has been playing competitive basketball for about two years," said Drew Gladstone, who coaches Enoch on the High Rise-Team Up AAU team. "He’s a late-bloomer. He's still coming into his body so he has tremendous upside, it’s really pretty scary. He’s still kind of defining his role as a player, he can shoot the ball probably better than anybody. He just has a really pure shot. He's incredibly skilled, he works out every single day, hitting the weights."

Gladstone added that Enoch sports a 3.3 GPA. He took an unofficial to UConn about a month ago, but it's still a bit too early for Enoch, who doesn't turn 17 until the end of September, to start narrowing down visits and lists.

*** Another Northefield Mount Hermon player, 6-8 Class of '16 forward A.J. Brodeur, is also on UConn's radar, though the Huskies haven't stepped up with an offer yet.

By now, you're surely aware of the ESPN.com report that the Los Angeles Lakers plan to gauge Kevin Ollie's interest in their head coaching job, now that Mike D'Antoni has resigned. It was inevitable -- and, in fact, something that's been rumored for a while now, before D'Antoni left the position. And it will be something we'll be hearing a lot more of, not just in respect to the Lakers but Oklahoma City, the Knicks, maybe even the Celtics at some point.

As I discussed with Paul Nanos this afternoon on 979 ESPN Radio, I don't think Kevin Ollie's going anywhere. At least not yet. Just as Shabazz Napier said following the championship parade a few weeks ago, and Ollie essentially agreed.

For one, the Lakers aren't exactly an ideal landing spot right now. There's the Kobe Bryant drama, and the prospect that the team could be in a rebuilding phase for the next few years. A more likely scenario might be the Thunder, where Kevin Durant is an unabashed fan. But they have a coach, they're in the playoffs, and if they have any semblance of success in the playoffs, they probably won't fire Scott Brooks.

Plus, remember, Ollie could have taken a job with the Thunder after he retired from playing four years ago. Instead, he decided to come home to become Jim Calhoun's assistant (and, for all intents and purposes, UConn's coach-in-waiting). The man values his family life in Glastonbury, where his son, Jalen, is a senior in high school who'll attend prep school next year and his daughter will be beginning high school in a couple of years. Hard to believe he'd want to leave for the Midwest or West Coast ... yet.

From that perspective, the Knicks or Celtics would make a lot more sense. But seems the Knicks are intent on Steve Kerr, and the Celtics aren't about to give up on Brad Stevens ... yet. Check back in a couple of years on that one.

And don't forget, Ollie has preached loyalty from the time he returned to UConn. He's gone out of his way numerous times praising the players -- Napier, Niels Giffey, Tyler Olander, etc. -- who could have bolted the program after the postseason tourney ban was announced but remained loyal to the program. It's hard to believe Ollie would leave so quickly, no matter what kind of money the NBA could throw his way.

And make no mistake, the NBA can throw a lot more money Ollie's way than Warde Manuel ever could. (Through a spokesman, Manuel has said that there is "no update" on any contract extension talks with Ollie to this point). But remember: Ollie would have about as iron-clad grip on a job as any coach in the country would have in college basketball, what with a national title on his resume after just two seasons on the job. It's hard to imagine a scenario where Ollie would or could lose his job at UConn any time soon.

The shelf life for an NBA coach, on the other hand, is a lot shorter. Go through a couple of losing seasons, particularly in New York or L.A., and they'll be calling for your head. What's a more attractive financial future: making, say, $3 million a year for what could be 15, 20, 25 more years, or making $6-7 million a year with the prospect of getting canned lurking at the end of any disappointing season? Sure, Ollie could become the next Gregg Poppovich or Doc Rivers. But for every Poppovich or Rivers, there are dozens of guys who only last a couple years as head coach.

And let's also remember: if Ollie were to leave UConn now, he'd have to pay about a $2.5 million buyout.

Kevin Ollie may well wind up head coach of the Lakers or Thunder or Knicks or Celtics or who knows who else. I just don't see it happening now. Not yet.

Sounds like Terry Larrier, the 6-foot-7 small forward out of the Bronx, is legitimately torn between UConn and VCU.

"I think he's on the fence," said Jeremy Pridgen, who coaches and trains Larrier's AAU team, Team SCAN. "If he could give half of himself to one, half of himself to the other, he'd do it."

But Pridgen added: "I think he pretty much knows what he wants to do. It's more of a situation of, 'How am I gonna call this one coach and tell him I'm not coming?' He's gonna fit in great, wherever he goes."

Larrier's decision could come over the next few days. If he lands in Storrs, Kevin Ollie is getting a good one that could offset some of the misses (Abdul Malik Abu, Quentin Snider, Paul White) the Huskies have had over the past couple of weeks.

"He's one of the best kids we've had in the program," Pridgen said. "He's come so far in a very short amount of time. He's worked hard, grown a few inches, and has come far. And he's got so much further to go.

"He's got a lot of talent. He's hungry, too. When you put those two things together, he can actually do it."

Pridgen compares Larrier to DeAndre Daniels, except "Terry is a much better shooter." He noted that VCU head coach Shaka Smart has been "on him from minute-one. He's been on him really hard."

However, Pridgen added, "UConn is creeping up on him."

Larrier visited Storrs a few weeks ago.

"That meeting went well," Pridgen said. "He loves Rudy Gay. He sees himself fitting in there really well ... He looks at UConn's wings like him -- long and lanky -- and who made it to the next level. And he likes Coach Ollie. He thinks he's going to have it rockin' like when (Jim) Calhoun was there."

Now, it's just a matter of making a very tough decision.

"He loves Kevin, he loves Shaka," Pridgen reported. "He loved Billy (Donovan, Florida's coach), too, but he hasn't really been on him like the other two."

Whatever the decision, one thing is certain: UConn definitely has a fan in the Team SCAN ranks in Pridgen. And that could help in the future with a kid like Thomas Bryant, a 6-9 Class of 2015 power forward, or even (way down the road) Tremont Waters, a Class of 2017 point guard who played for Team SCAN and is now at South Kent School ... and who happens to hail from New Haven.

"When they start winning this year, all the (Class of) 2015 kids are gonna be like, '(Ollie) really lets those guards play,'" Pridgen said. "Once he puts one of his own guys in the league, when they see the kind of year Shabazz (Napier) and Ryan (Boatright) are gonna have, they're going to be very intrigued about going there. UConn is gonna do very well."

Kevin Ollie said he believes he beat Warde Manuel by a stroke in their pro-am round on Wednesday. Here's some of what he had to say about his UConn team:

"We’ve got a great team coming back. Guys are working tremendously hard, doing a great job in first-session, second-session summer school. I feel good about our freshman class. We’ve just got to come back with that same attitude."

(on Ray Allen's huge 3-pointer Tuesday night)

(on how he's handling his first off-season as head coach)

"I'm still trying to figure it out. I learned a lot from Coach (Calhoun). After we won the championship, I was about to book my trip to Tahiti and everything, and he said, ‘Monday, we’ve got a meeting.’ He said this is where you grind and do your grunt work and prepare for next season."

(on next year's schedule)

"We think we’ve got it close to last year, with the scheduling we have, with possibly playing Indiana, possibly playing Washington twice, we have Stanford coming here, playing Maryland, playing Florida. We think we kept it about the same. Then, getting to conference play, we want to play very well. It’s going to be different for us: different hotels, different flights, different states we’re going to. It’s going to be an adjustment."

Ollie said he hasn't heard from Enosch Wolf yet, and that there's no timetable for his decision:

"I wish him the best of luck. We’ll have him come back if he wants to come back. He did everything we can ask for. He did very, very well with his sessions, that he chose to do on his own. I wish him the best of luck, and when he gets back in that predicament, I know he’s going to make a better decision."

He added that the decision to allow Wolf back as a non-scholarship player was "a collaborative effort, coming from Susan, Warde and myself. We worked together on that."

Ollie said Shabazz Napier should be back on the court this week, Tyler Olander is still about a month away and Omar Calhoun is about 1 1/2 months away. Napier will head to the Point Guard Skills Academy camp in Newark and Chris Paul's camp, and DeAndre Daniels is heading to Kevin Durant's camp in Washington, D.C.

"I called KD and told him to take care of him, give him a couple of secrets there," said Ollie, Durant's former teammate.

Helps to have a head coach who's a longtime ex-NBA player and is so well-respected in the league, isn't it?

Howie Dickenman was recently quoted in some media outlets saying that Kevin Ollie was signed by both Cleveland (in 2003) and Oklahoma City (2009) to help mentor LeBron James and Kevin Durant, respectively, early in their careers.

Dickenman is a Jim Calhoun disciple, however, which means statements like this can sometimes be ... well, a bit of an embellishment.

I put in some calls to people who were with the Cavs and Thunder at the time, and while I haven't heard back from anyone with the Thunder, I did get to talk to Jim Paxson, the former NBA all-star who was Cleveland's GM when it signed Ollie to a five-year (yes, five-year), $15 million deal.

It's really been the only long-term deal Ollie has signed (including now, of course, what with his one-year deal at UConn).

“I think for him,” recalled Paxson, “it just gave him more motivation to prove he deserved that.”

Hard to believe Ollie won't have the same motivation now at UConn.

Anyway, turns out Paxson did sign Ollie with the expressed desire to help mentor and tutor LeBron. Here's some of what he had to say:

“We thought he could come in and be a bridge for us at the point guard position,” Paxson recalled, “and also be a good influence on our younger players, the primary one being LeBron.”

And what made Paxson believe Ollie would be a good influence on King James?

“I just think his professionalism and approach to the game is what players followed,” he said. “Even though LeBron was a great player when he first came in the league, along the way, in my first couple of years around him and even after that, (LeBron) was always looking for veterans in the league that did it the right way. Kevin had a good approach with LeBron and other young players – being a professional, showing it on a day-to-day basis that you’ve got to show up, work on your game, work on your body.”

Ollie played all 82 games that season, the only time in his NBA career he ever did so. He only started seven times, however, and averaged a mere 17.1 minutes per game as he never quite fit in with coach Paul Silas, who was in his first year at the helm.

Interestingly, when Ollie went through spells of little playing time, he was picked up by some of the very same guys he was signed to help mentor.

“When at times he didn’t get to play a lot, LeBron and the guys kind of rallied around him and kept his spirits up, too,” Paxson recalled. “They appreciated how he came to work every day, how he was still trying to help them. He helped pick up some young guys, and was also picked up by them because of the type of person he was.”

Paxson always believed Ollie had the potential to be a head coach someday.

“It was more based on some of the conversations I would have had with him,” Paxson said. “He was looking at the game as a team, what was best for the team. You just kind of had that feeling that, if he wanted to pursue that and follow that path, he had the right demeanor and way about him and would have a chance to have some success.”

While Paxson has faith Ollie can handle the job, he knows it won’t be easy.

“At any level, when you move over from the assistant’s chair to the head coaching chair, you have to make the final decisions – whether to substitute, take timeouts, etc.,” he noted. “The pace and flow of the game is a little different than when you’re sitting there as an assistant.

“But I think he will relate well to the players and find a way to get the most out of them.”

Andre Drummond met with the media today for a half-hour to discuss tomorrow night's draft, as well as a lot of other things: his time at UConn, why he decided to leave after one year, rumors that he has a poor work ethic and his mom, who left her job as a nurse at Middlesex Hospital two days ago and will move out with her son wherever he ends up.

Here's some of what Drummond had to say (Jeremy Lamb, by the way, was a no-show):

(on his workouts and everything leading up to the draft)

“It’s a lot of joy and excitement. I’m excited to be here, and I can’t wait for tomorrow to come around.”

(what NBA players have given him advice, and what have they told him)

"Rudy Gay, Ray Allen, Kevin Durant. They've all said pretty much the same thing: 'Once you get drafted, don't stop working hard. You haven't really done anything yet. Just give it your all every single day, work hard, and you'll be fine.'"

Drummond has worked out for Portland, Sacramento, Cleveland, Charlotte and Washington. He went head-to-head, fullcourt, with Thomas Robinson at Charlotte.

“(Charlotte) was probably one of the best two workouts I’ve ever had. I told Thomas (Robinson) before the workout, ‘I’m here to work, not to B.S. I’m trying to get something done here.’ He looked at me like, ‘Alright, let’s try to make each other better.’”

He said he's hearing he could go anywhere from No. 2 to No. 7 in the draft, but doesn't put any stock into what people are saying in the media. 

“I’ve never read anything in the media since I was in high school … I never read what people say about me. Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion. Whether people say good tihjings or bawd things, I just stay away from it.”

(on rumors that his work ethic and 'motor' are concerns to NBA teams)

“Hearing stuff like that, I don’t get upset about it. Nobody knows what I’m capable of doing. They just saw what they saw this year … everybody changes from year to year. They had the same doubts about Dwight Howard, and look where he is now.”

“Whatever team I go to, all that talk is going to be put to rest, because I am a hard worker, there’s nothing wrong with my motor.”

(how he'll be able to help a team as a rookie)

“Coming in, I feel like I’ll run the floor well, gravb rebounds, block shots and let the offense come to me. I’m not going to stress too much on offense, because that’s one of the things I’m working on. I’ve worked real hard on my offensive game. But right now, defense is the strongest part of my game.”

Drummond said he's lost 22 pounds since the end of the season, putting him around 275.

"I feel great, quicker laterally, moving quicker on my feet.”

He also said that his mom will move out with him to wherever he goes and live with him in his house, at least until he gets his second contract. At that point, he hopes to be able to buy her a house.

“She’s been my biggest supporter. She definitely needs to relax now.”

 But, he added with a smile: “Her work isn’t over. She’s going to be my manager, so she’s got a lot of work to do. It feels great to be able to give back to her after she helped me out so much.”

Drummond said that, throughout the spring, he'd come down to New York to work on his game, particularly his offensive skills set and his free throw shooting.

(on his one season at UConn)


“Connecticut's like a big family. I love Connecticut with all my heart. The fans there are amazing, my teammates are amazing, coaching staff is great, but the fans are really amazing."

(did UConn's postseason ban hasten his departure for the NBA)

“I think I was going to leave regardless of the tournament or not. This is an opportunity that doesn’t ocme up too many times. It’s an opportulnity I needed to take, and move forward with my life.”

We interrupt your dreams of another miracle Big East tournament and NCAA tournament run to remind you that both Andre Drummond and Jeremy Lamb should be lottery picks in this year's NBA Draft and, in all likelihood, will go pro once the season is over.

I asked a couple of NBA scouts -- one from the Eastern Conference, one from the Western Conference -- what they liked and disliked about the respective games of Drummond and Lamb. Most of what they said isn't ground-breaking or anything most UConn fans don't already know, but it's interesting to hear from guys who's jobs are on the line when it comes to scouting and rating potential NBA players.

Here's what they had to say:

“Drummond is what I call an alien,” said the Eastern Conference scout. “He’s from another planet, physically. He’s just so gifted, it’s mind-boggling. As a player, he’s just learning to play. For any guy like that, if he would just play as hard as he possibly could, all the time, the results will be good most of the time because he’s just flat-out physically superior to almost everyone on the planet.”

The scout added that Drummond “has the potential to be an NBA all-star, no question in my mind. But it’s a long way between where he is today and being an NBA all-star.”

"I know the Connecticut fans want performance night-in, night-out, but I don't know how realistic that is from a guy just learning to play. The NBA has shown time and time again that it will wait on a big. They won't on a smaller player. They want instant gratification on smaller guys."

The scout stressed that Drummond has to improve his fundamentals, particularly on offense.

“At times, I thought he was shooting not off his palm, but off his wrists,” the scout said. “I’d never seen anything like that. I didn’t think it the ball had any chance of going in. (Against West Virginia), he was hitting turnaround shots, and one of the scouts leaned over and said, ‘If he keeps hitting those shots, he’ll be the first pick, not the second pick.’”

The Western Conference scout echoed those sentiments.

“You’d have to start from scratch,” he said. “It’s a testament to the world of AAU. Someone who (cared) about the kid would have started at basic fundamentals. He doesn’t even hold the ball correctly. You can teach anyone how to do that, especially when they’re young enough. With his talent and athleticism, all he needs is a hook shot. If he can hit an open jump shot, he’d be basically unguardable.”

He added: "He’s very friendly, seems like a nice kid. With all those big guys, you’d like to crawl inside his brain. Does he like to play? A lot of big guys are forced into it because of their size. How much does he wanna work? He's so physically talented, he can probably make a living roaming the court, rebounding, blocking a shot here and tehre, alley-oops. But right now, there's a real lack of skill."

*** As for Lamb, the Western Conference scout believes he’s a perfect NBA two-guard.

“He has the position, you don't have to worry about him making the adjustment," he said. "I don’t know too many guys you’d take ahead of him at that position. He does have a nice arsenal of shots. He’s pretty smooth once he gets in a rhythm. The shot he hit (against Providence), that classic little floater, that’ll help him at the next level if he doesn’t forget about it. You can’t get to the rim all the time in the NBA, so you’ve got to offset that.”

Lamb hasn’t shot the ball as well as many expected this season – 32.7 percent on 3-pointers, and just 28.5 percent on 3-pointers in Big East play. But he’s been the focal point of many opponents’ defenses, something he won’t likely have to worry about in the NBA.

“(Scouts) take that into account,” the Western Conference scout said. “You’re not going to ask him to carry an NBA team and be a Kevin Durant or anything. He can even be a MarShon Brooks, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

The Eastern Conference scout likes Lamb, as well.

“He’s going to be a high pick also,” he said. “He’s got a high skill level, a bright upside. He needs to get stronger, a little tougher, and better off the bounce. He’s got a good 1, 2 dribble off the bounce, but after that I have questions. That being said, he’s young, it’s all ahead of him. He has a golden future.”

Both scouts pointed out that it would behoove both players – particularly Drummond – to stay in school for at least another year.

“In a perfect world he should stay in school, I think,” the Eastern Conference scout said. “But I’m not addressing the financial component, which is a driving force. I’d like to see him stay at Connecticut, I think a great deal of the coaching staff. Any player that will stay at Connecticut and work will have the opportunity to get better.”

But there are two words that any likely lottery pick needs to hear that normally convinces them to go pro:

"It’s called 'Greg Oden,'" the Eastern Conference scout said. "It's crystal-clear. If Greg Oden stayed at Ohio State, I have no doubt that they would have won a couple of national championships, if he was healthy. But the fact is he went to the NBA and he got his money. Thank God he got money, look what's happened since. It's been a nightmare physically. every player is a knee injury away from his career being over."

Indeed, all signs point to Drummond and Lamb going pro.

“(Lamb) will be right at the top (among two-guards),” the Eastern Conference scout added. “The only guy ahead of Drummond would be (Kentucky’s Anthony) Davis. You’ve got a kid like Thomas Robinson of Kansas playing at a very high level, he’s going to be a terrific NBA player, but he’s smaller, obviously, than Drummond.

“(Drummond) is going to go, if not second, then very high.”

*** Lamb earned first team all-Big East honors on Sunday while Drummond made the all-rookie team. The conference's Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards will all be announced on Tuesday, between morning and afternoon sessions of the Big East tourney at Madison Square Garden.

My picks would be: Jae Crowder, Player of the Year; Moe Harkless, Rookie of the Hear; and Stan Heath, Coach of the Year. I'm guessing that's how it'll go, though Drummond (the preseason pick) probably has a shot at Rookie of the Year. And Mike Brey seems to win Coach of the Year every season, so maybe we should just earmark him for that one, as well.

Anyway, here are the all-Big East selections:

ALL-BIG EAST FIRST TEAM

Jeremy Lamb, Connecticut, G, So., 6-5, 185, Norcross, Ga.

Jason Clark, Georgetown, G, Sr., 6-2, 170, Arlington, Va.

*Jae Crowder, Marquette, F, Sr., 6-6, 235, Villa Rica, Ga.

Darius Johnson-Odom, Marquette, G, Sr., 6-2, 215, Raleigh, N.C.

Kris Joseph, Syracuse, F, Sr., 6-7, 210, Montreal, Quebec

Kevin Jones, West Virginia, F, Sr., 6-8, 260, Mount Vernon, N.Y.

ALL-BIG EAST SECOND TEAM

Sean Kilpatrick, Cincinnati, G, So., 6-4, 215, White Plains, N.Y.

Jack Cooley, Notre Dame, F, Jr., 6-9, 244, Glenview, Ill.

Jordan Theodore, Seton Hall, G, Sr., 6-0, 174, Englewood, N.J.

Scoop Jardine, Syracuse, G, Sr., 6-2, 190, Philadelphia, Pa.

Maalik Wayns, Villanova, G, Jr., 6-2, 200, Philadelphia, Pa.

ALL-BIG EAST THIRD TEAM

Henry Sims, Georgetown, C, Sr., 6-10, 232, Baltimore, Md.

Vincent Council, Providence, G, Jr., 6-2, 180, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Herb Pope, Seton Hall, F, Sr., 6-8, 236, Aliquippa, Pa.

Dion Waiters, Syracuse, G, So., 6-4, 215, Philadelphia, Pa.

Darryl Bryant, West Virginia, G, Sr., 6-2, 195, Brooklyn, N.Y.

BIG EAST HONORABLE MENTION

Cleveland Melvin, DePaul, F, So., 6-8, 205, Baltimore, Md.

Hollis Thompson, Georgetown, F, Sr., 6-7, 205, Los Angeles, Calif.

Kyle Kuric, Louisville, G-F, Sr., 6-4, 185, Evansville, Ind.

Ashton Gibbs, Pittsburgh, G, Sr., 6-2, 190, Scotch Plains, N.J.

Moe Harkless, St. John’s, F, Fr., 6-8, 190, Queens, N.Y.

BIG EAST ALL-ROOKIE TEAM^

Andre Drummond, Connecticut, C, Fr., 6-11, 275, Middletown, Conn.

Chane Behanan, Louisville, F, Fr., 6-7, 250, Bowling Green, Ky.

Jerian Grant, Notre Dame, G, So., 6-5, 185, Bowie, Md.

LaDontae Henton, Providence, F, Fr., 6-6, 220 Lansing, Mich.

Moe Harkless, St. John’s, F, Fr., 6-8, 190, Queens, N.Y.

D’Angelo Harrison, St. John’s, G, Fr., 6-3, 186, Missouri City, Texas

Anthony Collins, USF, G, Fr., G, 6-1, 175, Houston, Texas