Think the big man has gone out of style in college
basketball? Turn your eyes to Madison Square Garden this week where the rebirth of the post player will be on display in the Big East tournament.
The conference starts its postseason event Wednesday, and it will feature some of the best inside scorers and defenders any league has offered in recent years.
Consider Notre Dame's 6-8 Luke Harangody, Georgetown's 7-2 Roy Hibbert, Connecticut's 7-3 Hasheem Thabeet, Louisville's 6-11 David Padgett and Syracuse's 6-9 Arinze Onuaku.
Not making the scene in New York this week is South Florida's 6-9 all-conference selection Kentrell Gransberry, who led the league in rebounding (10.8) but whose club failed to qualify for the 12-team tournament.
And while Pittsburgh's standout freshman forward DeJuan Blair is just 6-7, he's strong enough to trail only Gransberry and Harangody (10.3) in league rebounding with 9.5 per game.
It makes for an array of talent so impressive that UConn coach Jim Calhoun and Syracuse mentor Jim Boeheim, who have 51 Big East seasons between them, think it might be the best group of big men the league has had at one time.
"Harangody has been the best player in the league, I think, all year and could be the most improved player too," said Boeheim, whose center, Onuaku, led the conference in field-goal percentage (64.2%).
"And it's no coincidence that when Padgett got healthy, Louisville started winning. Everything has gone through Hibbert for two years, and they've won two (league) championships at Georgetown. And Thabeet is the most intimidating defensive player in the country."
Calhoun said the re-emergence of the big man has made the league "a throwback, a little bit, to the days when everybody had a center."
"I don't think I've seen as much post play and post dunks as I've seen now," he says. "It makes the game so much more difficult. There are no cheap layups because you have big people there to stop that. You've got a lot more quality of inside-outside play, and it gives you a pretty good indication that to win, you need a quality center."
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