Pitt cheerleaders and dance team rock the Fitzerald Fieldhouse

Panthers celebrate Big East West Championship at the Fieldhouse

Controversy arises for SGB, Delta Tau Delta, and Rainbow Alliance

Students participated in different activities near the cafeterias

Bread for the world promotes hunger awareness

Habitat for humanity fundraises with creativity

IMPRESSIONS

Editorial: SGB's board appointment raises questions

Letters to the Editor:

The sinfulness of homosexuality is up for debate!

Principles of oppression hurt society

Israel: Whose land is it anyway?

"Mi casa es su casa": My home is your home

One man's sorrow should not be another's joy.

Bensylvania by Ben Goldblatt

Play the NCAA Tournament contest to win money

ENTERTAINMENT

Review of Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand

Hip-hopper KRS-One once again comes to Pitt

SPORTS

Pitt finishes at the Fieldhouse with firepower

Knight and Howland receive Big East honors

EXPRESSIONS

Jubilee Afrikana rocks the Hilton Hotel in Downtown

Only the right antidote can protect your life

There is evidence to support Christ's resurrection

Mannafest conference helps rock the Holiday Inn in Ohio

Some of God's Children choir rocks the William Pitt Union

SPECIAL FEATURE

Gospel revealed through semantics and word play

In remembrance of 'Good Friday', the top 25 student responses to 'Loving the world God...'

God's love is alphabetically revealed in random languages

Students reflect on the cross through poetry

Knight and Howland receive Big East Honors

Jon Sobolewski
Sports Editor

The Big East player of the year award must go to a player who if he did not exist, his team would not be very successful. Of course his team has to be very successful for him to be considered so that eliminates Michael Sweetney and Troy Bell from consideration.

So that leaves four players in my mind Connecticut’s Caron Butler, St. John’s Marcus Hatten, Notre Dame’s Chris Thomas, and Pitt’s Brandin Knight.

Thomas cannot win the award simply because he may not be the best player on his team, even though he probably is more valuable than his teammate Ryan Humphrey.

Marcus Hatten is also a terrific player, but he has disappeared on several occasions and his team is a bubble team. So that leaves the best players on the conferences two best teams. Knight averaged 15.6 points and 6.9 assists per game and Butler averaged 19.6 points and 7.4 rebounds per game.

Butler is the most versatile player in the conference and has been the conference’s most dominating player in the past month. If the Big East Player of the Year is defined as the guy who steps up when it’s crunch time, then Caron Butler should walk away with the award, according to Uconn coach Jim Calhoun.

Knight is the only player on Pitt capable of running the team for nearly 40 minutes each night. Knight is always making clutch plays down the stretch as well and he controls the game and leads his team in a leadership manner much more than Bulter does

“Look at what he means to us,” Howland said. “Butler has better talent on his team with (Johnny) Selvie, (Emeka) Okafor, (Ben) Gordon and (Tony) Robertson. It’s not even close. Brandin makes us so much better, he makes everyone better.”

Both coaches make a terrific case for each player, so this is why I am proud that the award went to both Caron Butler and Brandin Knight. There is no player in the conference as talented as Bulter, but there is no player more valuable to his team than Knight.

As far as freshman of the year, Chris Thomas may receive every  coach’s vote except his own (because Mike Brey cannot vote for his own player). Thomas can take over a game for Notre Dame with his poise, defense, and his clutch shot-making ability. Emeka Okafor of Uconn should get Mike Brey’s vote because his ability to change a game with his shot-blocking talents.

Coach of the Year is again a no contest award.  Ben Howland of Pitt is one of the favorites for National Coach of the Year and he is proving that Pitt will need to at least double his salary to pay him fair value for his coaching abilities.

Howland has turned a disgraceful program into a developing jewel and he has done more with the talent of his players than any coach in the conference could so he deserved the Big East Coach of the Year honors.

Gary Waters of Rutgers certainly did a good job in his first season at Rutgers, but nothing compares to what Howland did with Pitt this season.

In a final note, Providence guard John Linehan deserves some type of recognition for his Big East career. Linehan set the all-time NCAA mark for steals in a season this year and every Big East coach will be glad that he will never create hell for their team again. Hopefully the NBA will look past his small stature and draft one of the best defenders the NCAA has ever seen.

Photo by Ramesh C.Reddy

Brandin Knight, 3rd player from left received Big East co-player of the year award and his teammates gather around each other. Coach Ben Howland, not pictured here, received Big East Coach of the year award. Panthers finish the regular season with a 25-4 record and 13-3 in the Big East.

Jon Sobolewski is also the editor of an online College Basketball website http://sobeball.i8.com.

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