Justin Lewis, Darryl Morsell, & Kam Jones Earn All-Big East Honors

The Big East announced the all-conference teams for men’s basketball on Sunday afternoon, less than 24 hours after the regular season came to an end on Saturday night with Marquette’s win over St. John’s. We’re here for MU-related stuff, so let’s get right to it: Justin Lewis has been named to the All-Big East First Team, Darryl Morsell is one of four players tabbed with the Honorable Mention tag, and Kam Jones is a unanimous choice for the All-Freshman Team.

Let’s start things off with the Big East’s blurb on Lewis in their press release:

Marquette’s Lewis became the BIG EAST scoring champion on the last day of season, finishing with an 18.2 scoring mark in league games. In all games, he is the only player in the BIG EAST to rank in the top five in scoring and rebounding. Lewis ranks third in overall scoring at 17.1 points per game, fourth in rebounding at 8.0 and fourth in field goal shooting, connecting on 45.2 percent.

And here’s what the MU release includes:

Lewis, one of the league’s most improved players, is ranked among the conference leaders in six categories. He is third in the league in scoring at 17.1 points per game and fourth in rebounding (8.0 rpg.). The Baltimore native was named BIG EAST Player of the Week on Sunday for the second time this season and courtesy of his 28-point effort in the regular season finale, he earned the scoring title in league outings at 18.2 points per game.

We stick with the Marquette release for the download on Morsell:

Morsell, an All-Big Ten selection at Maryland, is in his first season with the Golden Eagles. He has started all of his 29 appearances and is 16th in the league in scoring with 13.3 points per game. He has reached double figures in points on 20 occasions and scored 20-or-more points six times.

As well as for Jones:

Jones has appeared in 29 outings in his debut season with Marquette, including seven starting assignments. He has scored double figures in seven games on the year and is contributing 7.5 points per contest. He is ranked 13th in the BIG EAST in 3-pointers per game (1.8) and shooting 39.6 percent from distance on the year.

Jones is one of three unanimous choices for the All-Freshman team. The other two are Creighton’s Ryan Nembhard and Georgetown’s Aminu Mohammed, both of whom were every game starters for their respective teams all season long.

Turning the dial back to Lewis for a moment, if you’re wondering if he has a shot at being named Big East Player of the Year when that trophy gets announced later this week, I have a very simple answer for you: No. There are six men on the All-Big East First Team, and yes, the press release confirms that one of them will be POY. It’s almost a guarantee that the Player of the Year is going to be Villanova’s Collin Gillespie, as he is the only unanimous choice for the First Team. If he’s the only player that every coach agrees on for the First Team, then that feels like a safe bet that he’ll be getting the majority of if not all of the votes for POY.

On the flip side of that coin, there is at least something resembling a chance of Jones being named Freshman of the Year. The press release from the league says that the FOY is coming from that five man group, and when you’re one of three unanimous choices, there’s a chance. I would think that Nembhard is probably the most likely candidate as the starting point guard on a team that wasn’t really projected as an NCAA tournament team but is at least in the ballpark of going even after his injury, but who can say what the coaches value in their vote.

The only other thing I want to point out is that the collective vote of the coaches resulted in no one from the regular season champion on the all-conference First Team. Please feel free to do whatever with that information that you feel you need to do.

Here’s the rundown on the all-conference teams!

ALL-BIG EAST FIRST TEAM

R.J. Cole, Connecticut, G, Gr., 6-1, 185, Union, N.J.
Adama Sanogo, Connecticut, F, So., 6-9, 240, Bamako, Mali
Justin Lewis, Marquette, F, So., 6-7, 245, Baltimore, Md.
Julian Champagnie, St. John’s, G-F, Jr., 6-8, 215, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Jared Rhoden, Seton Hall, G-F, 6-6, 210, Baldwin, N.Y.
*Collin Gillespie, Villanova, G, Gr., 6-3, 195, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.

ALL-BIG EAST SECOND TEAM

Ryan Hawkins, Creighton, F, Sr., 6-7, 222, Atlantic, Iowa
Javon Freeman-Liberty, DePaul, G, Sr., 6-4, 180, Chicago, Ill.
Jared Bynum, Providence, G, R-Jr., 5-10, 180, Largo, Md.
Nate Watson, Providence, F, Gr., 6-10, 260, Portsmouth, Va.
Justin Moore, Villanova, G, Jr., 6-4, 210, Ft. Washington, Md.

ALL-BIG EAST HONORABLE MENTION

Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton, C, So., 7-0, 256, St. Louis, Mo.
Darryl Morsell, Marquette, G, Gr., 6-5, 205, Baltimore, Md.
Posh Alexander, St. John’s, G, So., 6-0, 200, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Jack Nunge, Xavier, C, Jr., 7-0, 245, Newburgh, Ind.

BIG EAST ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM

Jordan Hawkins, Connecticut, G, 6-5, 175, Gaithersburg, Md.
Trey Alexander, Creighton, G, 6-4, 185, Oklahoma City, Okla.
*Ryan Nembhard, Creighton, G, 6-0, 167, Aurora, Ont.
Arthur Kaluma, Creighton, F, 6-7, 220, Glendale, Ariz.
*Aminu Mohammed, Georgetown, G, 6-5, 210, Temple Hills, Md.
*Kam Jones, Marquette, G, 6-4, 185, Cordova, Tenn.