The Big East came out with their end of the season All-Big East first and second teams today and Byrce Hopkins was named as one of the 6 members of the first team. There were only two unanimous selections to the first team, Hopkins and Marquette’s Tyler Kolek. I’m really surprised that Souley Boom from Xavier wasn’t unanimous but oh well, he’s still on the first squad. The rest of the first team shook out as such:

Jordan Hawkins (UConn)

Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton)

Souley Boom (Xavier)

Adama Sanogo (UConn)

I still can’t stand how they cop out and name 6 players to the first team, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to change anytime soon.

Hopkins joined Providence after just one season at Kentucky where he averaged just 6.4 minutes per game. His per game averages skyrocketed with his increase in time on the floor as Hopkins immediately stepped in as the Alpha Dog on the Friars team who lost their entire starting 5 from the previous year’s Sweet Sixteen team.

Hopkins averaged 16.1 ppg and 8.5 rpg, good for 4th and 2nd rankings in the conference. Taking a page right from Al Durham’s book, Hopkins thrived when taking smaller defenders to the hoop and made his living at the free throw line, averaging a league-best 5.7 free throw attempts per game.

There may not have been a single player in the Big East that made a bigger impact on their team’s success this season but after the late season swoon from the Friars, Hopkins’ case for Big East Player of the Year is most likely out the reach at this point. But, the fact that he was in the conversation at all, a year after averaging 2.1 ppg and 1.4 rpg, deserves an INSANE amount of kudos.

Devin Carter, another transfer who made an immediate and powerful impact to Providence, was named as one of four honorable mentions by the Big East. The Big East only names two All-Big East teams, so he was essentially All-Big East Third Team.

Ed Cooley better have Frank Martin’s number on speed dial for whenever someone transfers out of one of his programs because with Justin Minaya and now Devin Carter, that coach produces absolute defensive DOGS on his teams.