One time, at Big East Media Day....

If Midnight Madness is the official kickoff of college basketball season, then the conference Media Days are the....end of the first quarter? Hold on, what? Screw the football analogy (we'll get to an interesting analogy in a little bit though), let's just say, Media Day is awesome. We get to see who the coaches pick as the best teams and players in the conference, and you get to see a bunch of college kids look uncomfortable in a shirt and tie.

Scoop, in a Suit. (Syracuse.com)

Today was Big East Basketball Media Day in NYC, which is the home of one of the homes of Syracuse University basketball. The coaches selected Syracuse and UConn as the co-favorites for the league title this year. Next was Louisville, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Marquette, West Virginia, Villanova, Notre Dame and Georgetown rounding out the top 10. Jeez, this conference is tough.

On an individual basis, Pitt's Ashton Gibbs (and his undershirt) was selected as the Player of Year, while UConn's Andre Drummond was voted Freshman of the Year. Syracuse has Kris Joseph on the 1st team and Scoop Jardine on the 2nd team. West Virginia's Kevin Jones and Tim Abromitis of Notre Dame, both return for their 8th year of college, and were both voted as preseason 1st Teamers as well.

Daily Onions had the opportunity to attend Big East Media Day back before the 2002-03 season, when we were more Orange than Onion. We thought it'd be fun to reminisce about some of the names we chatted with that day at Madison Square Garden.

Let's check out the preseason 1st All-Big East honors that were handed out that day:

Probably taken before 1 of Bell's 6 NBA Games

• Brandin Knight, Pittsburgh - Selected as the preseason conference player of the year in '02-03, you can still find Knight in the Steel City, now as an assistant coach.
• Troy Bell (left), Boston College - This guy could absolutely light it up in college, is BC's all-time leading scorer, and had half a cup of coffee in the NBA.
• Emeka Okafor, Connecticut- Almost 10 years later, its crazy to think there was a debate over who should go #1 in the NBA Draft, Okafor or Dwight Howard. With that said, Okafor did win a National Championship, and has had a serviceable NBA career.
• Mike Sweetney, Georgetown - Undersized, big man for the Hoyas. Didn't have the body for an NBA career.
• Darius Rice, Miami, Jr.- Remember this guy? Freakishly athletic, McDonald's All-American, nephew of Jerry Rice. He ended up staying all 4 years of college, went undrafted and bounced around overseas and the D-League.
• Marcus Hatten, St. John's - Kind of like Bell, a pure scorer. Best memory of Hatten has to be playing for Uncle Phil at St. John's.

The 2nd team featured guys like: James Jones - yep, the same James Jones that is hitting 3s for the Heatles. He got his start in Miami as Hurricane; Chris Thomas - In a recent survey we just made up, this Notre Dame PG was voted most annoying player by opposing fans teams. Good to know he got an acting gig playing the PG in the movie Finding Forrester; Jerome Coleman - this Rutgers shooting guard led the Scarlet Knights to an upset over the eventual National Champions (Syracuse) that year in...New Jerrrrsey, and allowed me to exclaim "Send it in Jerome" (a Raftery fan even at a young age!) over the Syracuse radio airwaves. Shout out to Herve Lamizana as well.

Always a good time to look back at some of the players who came through the Big East. Carmelo Anthony was a freshman in 2002-03, and was picked to be the best Freshman of the Year in the conference, but was left off the 1st and 2nd team. Looks like Melo got the last laugh there.

Slick Rick: Why Don't You Sit the Next Few Plays Out

Speaking of laughs, today at Big East Media Day, Rick Pitino had some choice words about Syracuse and Pitt leaving the conference. Rick, who has been known to compare a tough start to a seasons to... 9/11, added this analogy to his resume:

"My problem is not them leaving," he said. "My problem is you did it in 48 hours. Don't run away with a girl after one date when you've been dating someone else for three or four years. You've been dating this woman for 30 years, show a little respect."

In case you forgot, Pitino, who has been married to his wife for more than 30 years, once met a woman in a restaurant, had a few drinks, and then proceeded to have sex with her in the bathroom. This occurred in 2003, and in 2009 Pitino admitted to not only having consensual sex, but also paying for an abortion. 

Pot, meet kettle. Hope you enjoyed media day.

College Basketball is Back! (Kind of)

A wise man once said, "I don't know if it will make any change, but I figure its time for me to start playing ball." That wise man was Jimmy Chitwood. And in the spirit of Jimmy, Hoosiers and basketball, Daily Onions doesn't know if it will make any change, but we figure its time for us to start writing about basketball.

Check out video of Jimmy Chitwood Gettin' Back into the Game

With the official kickoff of college basketball season (practices at least) tonight with "Midnight Madness", Daily Onions takes a look at what's on tap for the upcoming season:

1. Preseason Rankings!! We actually wrote about how stupid preseason rankings were last year in December after Harrison Barnes, a preseason 1st Team All-American before he even put on the baby blue Tar Heel uniform, struggled out of the gate, and UConn, the eventual National Champion catapulted to #9 a few weeks into the season, after being left out of the Top 25 preseason poll. This season's Top 5 Preseason Poll looks like this:

• UNC: Harrison Barnes, Kyler Zeller, John Henson, Kyle Marshall all return. That should be enough. Throw in two McDonald All-Americans....the early favorite to win it all and run the table.  
• Kentucky: Terrence Jones surprised everyone and came back to school, along with Doron Lamb (the 2nd best Lamb in college bball), and Darius Miller. Coach Cal, the snake oil salesman, also brings in the two of the best freshman in the country in Anthony Davis (Chicago) and Michael Gilchrist (NJ). Good combo of NJ and Chicago there.
• UConn: The Defending Champs bring back Jeremy Lamb, the little brother of Daily Onions loyal reader, Ramy. He joins one of our favorite big man underclassmen from last year, Alex Oriakhi, along with Shabazz Nappier, Roscoe Smith, and Tyler "White" Olander. Stud newcomer Andre Drummond will help as well.
• Syracuse: Oh, no (Cuse is in the House). High expectations for the Orange this year? That can't be good for the Cuse faithful. Everyone's favorite PG to hate, Scoop Jardine is back to run the show. All reports say that Scoop had a great summer at various camps and a stint w/ Team USA. Let's hope he learned how to be smart with the ball. The Cuse also returns Kris Joseph, who was picked as a 1st Team All-American. And that's right there is why we talk about how preseason rankings don't mean anything. We love Joseph, but a 1st Team All-American?!? Prove me wrong, Kris. Rounding things out for the Cuse are Brandon Triche, CJ Fair (Daily Onions Favorite), Dion Waiters (hopefully with a new attitude), Fab Melo, Baye Moussa Keita, James Southerland, Mookie Jones, Andy Rautins, Otis Hill.......right, you get it. The Orange return a lot. They also bring in 2 McDonalds All-Americans in Rakeem Christmas (lots of puns coming your way) and Michael Carter Williams. Trevor Cooney is another frosh, who folks are hoping can light the Dome up from outside.
• Ohio State University: No THE this year for OSU. Since we picked them to win it all, and they decided to bounce in the Sweet 16, you get no love from Daily Onions....for now. Once we see that large backside of Jared Sullinger (he actually slimmed down, though), I'm sure we'll rekindle the love. William Buford and Aaron Craft important returners for the Buckeyes.
• Duke: Yes, we can count. Duke is #6. Quick thought on the Blue Devils. They have arguably the best freshman in Austin Rivers, they return guards Seth Curry and Andre Dawkins, and now have three, yes THREE Plumlee brothers (not that that means anything). We are very excited to see Austin Rivers play. When we saw him at the McDonald's All-American game, we called him "Steph Curry with a little more pop".....whatever that means.

2. Basketball: Yep, it's that simple. The fact that basketball will be played is a huge thing to look forward to. With no NBA season in sight, the youngsters will have center stage, and that will be awesome. Throw in the fact that the greatest basketball conference ever assembled, The Big East, will be playing one of its final seasons (could be final, could have one or two more) as the dominant conference, culminating with the basketball orgy that is the Big East Tournament in March. Man, are we going to miss that tournament.

3. Road Trippin': While the schedule Gods did not grace us with a Big E Hoops Weekend Round 2 scenario, Daily Onions is planning on hitting the road to catch lots of games in person this season. We'll catch the Cuse at Notre Dame in January, we are taking a trip to see Brad Stevens and Hinkle Field House for a Butler game, we'll see what Big East teams roll through the Windy City to play DePaul, and will be sure to catch some Big Ten action up in Evanston. In short, we love college basketball, and we can wait to watch it....as I am sure that goes for the First Lady of Daily Onions as well.

With that said, in order to live up to our Jimmy Chitwood promise, we'll be posting weekly leading up to the start of the season, and then will get things going a bit more from there. We are only 9 posts away from 100, so we'll be sure to have a HUGE celebration commemorating some of our favorites from the first 100, and previewing what the second hundred have in store.

Thanks for reading, and here's to a great college basketball season.

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