As usual, in order to hold myself accountable, I list where I had all the players selected to my end of the season team’s, in my pre-season awards. I’ll have some hits and I’ll definitely have some misses. To start off, two of my pre-season first team selections (Jared Bynum & Caleb Daniels), didn’t even make my honorable mentions list and one of my end of the season first team selections (Souley Boom) didn’t make any pre-season team or honorable mention whatsoever.

I added two new things to my awards. First off, with the new rules in college basketball catering much more to the players and their ability to transfer and play immediately, I added a transfer of the year award to capture the newcomers who had the biggest impacts on their new teams. Secondly, I split up the Defensive Player of the Year Award into two separate awards. One for a wing player and one for a big. The abilities and skills to guard wings vs. the ability to guard bigs are so different that it’s hard to compare the two, so I thought it would be a good idea to split them up. They each need such a different set of skill sets that they’re almost apples and oranges.

Just for an FYI, I added my second and third choices for the year-end awards so you can see how close I was to going in another direction with each selection.

Without further ado…

1st Team

Bryce Hopkins (Providence) – Pre-Season 3rd Team

Tyler Kolek (Marquette) – Pre-Season 3rd Team

Souley Boom (Xavier) – No Pre-Season Team

Jordan Hawkins (UConn) – Pre-Season 2nd Team

Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton) – Pre-Season 1st Team

2nd Team

Adama Sanogo (UConn) – Pre-Season 1st Team

Joel Soriano (St. John’s) – No Pre-Season Team

Colby Jones (Xavier) – Pre-Season First Team

Zach Freemantle (Xavier) – No Pre-Season Team

Kam Jones (Marquette) – Pre-Season Honorable Mention

3rd Team

Devin Carter (Providence) – Pre-Season Honorable Mention

Eric Dixon (Villanova) – Pre-Season Honorable Mention

Baylor Scheierman (Creighton) – Pre-Season Honorable Mention

Jack Nunge (Xavier) – Pre-Season 2nd Taem

Oso Ighodaro (Marquette) – No Pre-Season Team

Honorable Mentions: Primo Spears (Georgetown), Umoja Gibson (DePaul), Trey Alexander (Creighton), Ed Croswell (Providence), Kadary Richardson (Seton Hall), Alex Karaban (UConn), Cam Whitmore (Villanova), & Manny Bates (Butler).

All Freshman Team:

Alex Karaban (UConn)

Donovan Clingon (UConn)

Cam Whitmore (Villanova)

AJ Storr (St. John’s)

Desmond Claude (Xavier)

Coach of the Year: Shaka Smart (Marquette)

2nd: Sean Miller (Xavier); 3rd: Ed Cooley (Providence)

Player of the Year: Tyler Kolek (Marquette)

2nd: Souley Boom (Xavier); 3rd: Bryce Hopkins (Providence)

Freshman of the Year: Alex Karaban (UConn)

2nd: AJ Storr (St. John’s); 3rd: Cam Whitmore (Villanova)

Transfer of the Year: Bryce Hopkins (Providence)

2nd: Souley Boom (Xavier); 3rd: Baylor Scheierman (Creighton)

Defensive Player of the Year (Wing): Devin Carter (Providence)

2nd: Andre Jackson (UConn); 3rd: Posh Alexander (St. John’s)

Defensive Player of the Year (Big): Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton)

2nd: K.C. Ndefeo (Seton Hall); 3rd: Donovan Clingon (UConn)

6th Man of the Year: David Joplin (Marquette)

2nd: Da’Sean Nelson (DePaul); 3rd: Donovan Clingon (UConn)

Most Improved Player: Joel Soriano (St. John’s)

2nd: Ed Croswell (Providence); 3rd: Jordan Hawkins (UConn)