NEW YORK — Ashton Gibbs knows that being named the Big East Preseason Player of the Year is a major achievement. It took a lot of work both on and off the court to propel him to that status.

But just hours after he was projected as the top player in the conference for the upcoming season, Pittsburgh’s senior guard was already putting the award behind him.

‘I’m just trying to push it aside,’ Gibbs said. ‘It is what it is. It’s definitely a great accomplishment. I worked really hard for it. But at the same time, I really just want to win this year.’

Gibbs became the fifth Panthers player to earn Preseason Player of the Year honors at Big East men’s basketball media day Wednesday at the New York Athletic Club. Syracuse and Connecticut took home the top team honors of the event as the rivals tied for first place in the Big East Preseason Coaches’ Poll. The other top individual honor of the day, Big East Preseason Rookie of the Year, went to Connecticut center Andre Drummond.

Drummond did not attend media day, but his teammate Alex Oriakhi gushed about the freshman big man.

‘He’s willing to learn,’ Oriakhi said. ‘That’s the thing I’m impressed about him most. He’s willing to listen and improve and get better. When you do that it helps. When you’re 277 pounds as well, it helps a lot. I think he’s going to be able to come in right away and help us from the start.’

The idea of Drummond contributing this year seemed impossible as recently as August. The No. 2 overall recruit in the Class of 2012 was originally going to attend prep school for a year but surprisingly committed to UConn at the end of August.

And from what Orakhi said, Drummond has lived up to the hype in the preseason.

‘I’ve seen athleticism out of this world,’ the senior forward said. ‘He’s just a very athletic kid. Once he learns how to slow down a little bit and not do everything based off athleticism, it’s going to be scary.’

Gibbs, on the other hand, has relied on his shooting to power him to the top of the conference. He shot 49 percent from 3-point range last year and enters the season ranked third on the Big East career list, shooting 45.4 percent from deep on his career.

Gibbs said his biggest individual goal this year is to create for himself and for others. But while he’s happy with the preseason award, he made it clear that winning comes first.

‘All the individual accolades will take care of themselves if we win games,’ Gibbs said. ‘I’m not really worried about preseason awards or individual awards as long as we win games.’

Stealing the show

While Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim shrugged off the multiple questions posed to him regarding the Orange’s upcoming move to the Atlantic Coast Conference, other coaches in the Big East did not hesitate to open up about conference realignment.

And for Villanova head coach Jay Wright, who had remained mostly silent on the matter prior to Wednesday, it has been hard to keep up with all the changes.

‘Every time I say I’m going to talk about it, I think I have a feel for what’s going on,’ Wright said. ‘But I swear by the time I go to talk, things change and then I know I don’t know what I’m talking about. That has really happened a lot.’

But while simply keeping up with all the changes has been frustrating for some, the ongoing episode of conference realignment has been even more trying for the Big East. The conference has already lost Pittsburgh and SU to the ACC and a commitment to join the conference by Texas Christian. And many of the coaches voiced their opinions on the changes in college sports on Wednesday.

‘To me, the No. 1 thing of significance in aligning any league is geography,’ Louisville head coach Rick Pitino said. ‘That’s what made the Big East run so smoothly. But now, when you talk about people flying from the Midwest to the East or vice versa, the athletes aren’t being taken into consideration.’

Both Wright and Pitino said not a single recruit has asked questions about this conference shake-up. And while realignment may be taking over headlines now, both also agreed that once the games actually begin, it will fade to the back of people’s minds.

‘Once you get into the actual playing, no one will talk about conference realignment,’ Pitino said. ‘I’m sure at every game, you’ll have signs about the schools that are leaving. I’m sure Georgetown’s going to have some nice signs about Syracuse. That will be, but once the season starts, nobody will talk about realignment.’

zjbrown@syr.edu 

Published on October 18, 2011 at 12:00 pm