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The Morning After: Press Thoughts from Big East Media Day

Adam Zagoria's Interview with Austin Freeman

Georgetown's Austin Freeman named Big East preseason player of the year
"Where you are picked is irrelevant," Georgetown Coach John Thompson III said during media day Wednesday at Madison Square Garden. "With the quality of the teams in this room, and the players in this room, and the coaches in this room, at the end of the year, that order could be completely jumbled up and no one would be surprised."

Big East basketball lacks star power for a change | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal
The Big East Conference no longer houses the beasts of recent memory. Though several of the men's basketball teams figure to remain in the national top 10, the overall star quality is lacking. Take the guy the Big East coaches voted preseason Player of the Year. Georgetown senior guard Austin Freeman, who averaged 16.5 points last season, is projected as a possible late second-round pick in the 2011 NBA draft.

Georgetown Basketball Gears Up for New Season | The Afro-American Newspapers | Your Community. Your History. Your News.
"Coach [John Thompson III] already said it himself: The guards are going to have to set the tone this year," said Freeman. "We’re just going to have to let everybody feed off of us because we have the most experience out of the group."

2010 Big East Media Day - ESPN
Expect more of the same this season. "We'll play the way we always play,'' Wright said. "But maybe pressure more defensively, try to get out for more transition buckets.'' That Georgetown will switch its strengths is no secret -- "Everyone in this room knows how well we do will begin and end with these guys,'' Thompson said, referring to Wright and Freeman, who flanked him at the table in New York -- but how well those strengths shine remains the question.

Hoya Prospectus: Run Hoyas, Run?
It appears that the Hoyas had a disciplined game plan last year:  when the opportunity was there, they would attack the opponent in an attempt to score on the fast break.  If the break wasn't there, Georgetown set up and then ran their offense, which found shot attempts generally after 15 seconds ran off the shot clock.

Pittsburgh is coaches' pick in Big East - College Basketball - Rivals.com
Georgetown senior guard Austin Freeman, who averaged 16.5 points last season while shooting 52.5 percent from the field—including a league-best 51.9 percent from 3-point range—was the choice as preseason player of the year. He is the fourth Hoya to be selected for the award, joining three-time honoree Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning and Roy Hibbert. “It’s an honor to be in that category. They are all great players,” he said. “The way I look at it, it only matters where we are at the end of the season. This is an honor and it gives me more focus but there’s a whole season to go.”

UConn's Calhoun insists he isn't a cheater
The word bothered him then, and still does today. Calhoun insisted at Big East media day at the Garden no matter what happens in the NCAA investigation of his program, he is not a cheater. "I know who I am and I know what I've done for college athletics," Calhoun said. "I know what I've done in my life and the way I've conducted my business. I'm not satisfied with myself, but I know who I am and feel very good about the way I've approached things."

UConn's Calhoun insists he's no cheater - College Basketball - Rivals.com
“I like our culture at UConn. We’ve made some adjustments in our culture certainly,” he said. “There’s been changes that have been necessitated, but nevertheless, our culture over 30, 25 years at UConn has been a very good one. Mistakes have been made. We’re human beings.”