Big East Media Day: D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera tabbed as preseason player of the year

Coaches and players from around the Big East are at Madison Square Garden today for Big East Media Day and it was just announced that coaches have picked Georgetown junior guard D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera as the preseason player of the year.

Smith-Rivera, a 6-3 junior, is the sixth Georgetown player in BIG EAST history to earn Preseason Player of the Year honors. He finished third in the league in scoring last year with a 17.6 average. He led the BIG EAST in free throw shooting, making 87.3 percent, and shot 39.3 percent from 3-point range. One of the league's ironmen, Smith-Rivera was fourth in minutes played in league action, averaging 37.0 minutes per game. A native of Indianapolis, Ind., he finished strong late in the season, averaging 21.0 points per game over the last six contests.

Smith-Rivera was an All-BIG EAST Second Team selection in 2013-14 and a BIG EAST All-Rookie Team pick as a freshman.

DSR was the only Hoya among the preseason All Big East First-Team, Second-Team, and Honorable Mention. Villanova leads the way with three players on these lists in first-teamer JayVaughn Pinkston and second-teamers Ryan Arcidiacono and Darrun Hilliard. The full list of preseason award winners is below.

2014-15 BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year
D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera, Georgetown

2014-15 BIG EAST Preseason Rookie of the Year
Isaiah Whitehead, Seton Hall

2014-15 BIG EAST Preseason All-BIG EAST First Team
Kellen Dunham, Butler, G, Jr., 6-6, 185, Pendleton, Ind.
D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera, Georgetown, G, Jr., 6-3, 214, Indianapolis, Ind.
D'Angelo Harrison, St. John's, G, Sr., 6-4, 204, Missouri City, Texas
JayVaughn Pinkston, Villanova, F, Sr., 6-7, 235, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Matt Stainbrook, Xavier, C, Sr., 6-10, 270, Bay Village, Ohio

2014-15 BIG EAST Preseason All-BIG EAST Second Team
Billy Garrett, Jr., DePaul, G, So., 6-6, 205, Chicago, Ill.
LaDontae Henton, Providence, F, Sr., 6-6, 215, Lansing, Mich.
Rysheed Jordan, St. John's, G, So., 6-4, 185, Philadelphia, Pa.
Ryan Arcidiacono, Villanova, G, Jr., 6-3, 195, Langhorne, Pa.
Darrun Hilliard, Villanova, G, Sr., 6-6, Bethlehem, Pa.

2014-15 Preseason All-BIG EAST Honorable Mention
Roosevelt Jones, Butler, G, Jr., 6-4, 227, O'Fallon, Ill.
Chris Obekpa, St. John's, C, Jr., 6-9, 240, Makurdi, Nigeria
Sterling Gibbs, Seton Hall, G, Jr., 6-2, 185, Scotch Plains, N.J.

You can follow along with Big East Media Day with a live stream on BigEast.com starting at 10:30 AM ET and there is a lot of action on Twitter using the #BEMediaDay hashtag. We'll post updates on anything notable throughout the day.