Lots of end-of-season awards and rankings trickling in.
First up, some new rankings. The Orange dropped to No. 3 in the AP Poll behind the new-No. 1 Kansas and then Kentucky. Makes sense. Any further down would have been an issue. Fellow Big East teams in the rankings include West Virginia (7), Villanova (10), Pitt (16) and Georgetown (22).
Update: The Orange are also No. 3 in the Coach Poll. They even still received one first-place vote (!). What's that guy smoking?
The Orange also remain a one-seed across the board in the many Bracketologys out there, namely the ESPN one and the SBNation one, which puts ten Big East teams in the Tournament.
Now to the player honors. The Big East announced their All-Conference teams and as you would expect a few Orange have popped up on there. Wes Johnson made the first-team, Andy Rautins made the second-team and Brandon Triche was named to the all-rookie team. You could probably sit here and make arguments about whether or not Andy Rautins really deserved that spot on the first-team or if Kris Joseph or Arinze Onuaku deserved a third-team nod, but it seems to shake out acceptably.
Kris Joseph did pick up an award of his own however, the Big East Sixth-Man of the Year Award. And rightfully so. The sophomore is third on the team in scoring with 11.0 points per game. He also averaged 5.4 rebounds in 27 minutes per game. The future is bright for young Kris.
Now we await the announcement of Big East Player of the Year. Wes Johnson is in the running but smart money has to be on Scottie Reynolds, who was also the only unanimous First-Team selection.
Update: Just in case you're wondering who strayed from the pack in the AP...
Al Balderas of the Orange County Register put Syracuse at No. 2.
Dave Borges of the New Haven Register put the Orange at No. 2.
Nick Jezierny of the Idaho Statesman has the Orange at No. 2 as well.
Scott Mansch of the Great Falls Tribune puts SU No. 2.
Dave Jones of the Patriot News keeps the Orange high at No. 2.
Ron Morris of The State votes the Orange No. 2 this week.
Dan Wolken of the Commercial Appeal only drops SU to No. 2.
Jason Franchuk at The Daily Herald puts SU at No. 2.
Seth Davis at Sports Illustrated has the Orange in at No. 2 in his poll.
Our old friend Jon Wilner dropped the Orange to No. 4 behind 7-loss Ohio State.
And the winner this week is Bill Cole from the Winston-Salem Journal, who drops the Orange to SIXTH in his poll. Behind 7-loss Ohio State, Purdue and Duke!