Thabeet named co-Big East Player of the Year

Some time in between getting judo flipped by DeJuan Blair, Hasheem Thabeet apparently played better than all other Big East players. Or at least that's how the coaches within the conference feel.

A day after being honored as the conference's defensive player of the year, Theebz was named co-Big East Player of the Year along with Blair.

The news is a bit surprising, considering the way Blair roughed up Thabeet in the two teams' meeting. But as I pointed out yesterday, Thabeet has established himself as one of the best defensive players in Big East history. So I guess it can kind of be seen as a recognition of his pretty great career.

Blair's stats were slightly better (15.6 ppg, 12.4 boards), but Thabeet (13.6 ppg, 10.8 rebounds) obviously has a big edge in blocks per game (4.5 to one). And Blair's tendency to rack up fouls also led to Pitt shooting itself in the foot several times.

Blair is probably the better player, but Thabeet had a good enough year where this news isn't too shocking. Like me, I'm sure most people had a "Really? ... Well, I guess that makes some sense" reaction.

Other awards handed out today:

Rookie of the Year

Greg Monroe, Georgetown

Coach of the Year

Jay Wright