Oct. 20, 2010
NEW YORK, N.Y. – Senior Tim Abromaitis (Unionville, Conn.), has been named to the 2010-11 preseason All-BIG EAST Second Team at the conference’s annual media day on Wednesday, Oct. 20 held at Madison Square Garden in New York City, N.Y.
Notre Dame was chosen seventh in the preseason coaches’ poll. The Irish finished with 123 points. Pittsburgh was chosen to win the conference’s annual regular-season race as the Panthers garnered 12 first-place votes and 208 points. Villanova was picked second with one first-place vote and 187 points and was followed by Syracuse (187 points) as the Orange garnered two first-place votes. Georgetown was tabbed fourth with 173 points followed by West Virginia (164 points), and St. John’s (145 points and 1 first place vote) was tabbed to finish sixth. Behind the Irish was a tie for the eighth spot with Louisville and Marquette both gathering 121 points. Connecticut was selected to finish tenth with 113 points and was followed by Seton Hall (104 points), Cincinnati (91 points), USF (54 points), Providence (36 points), Rutgers (32 points), and DePaul (26 points).
Abromaitis finished last season scoring 16.1 points per game, ranking behind only Luke Harangody on the Irish squad. He also finished first on the team in free throw percentage (87.3%) connecting on 117 out of 134 foul shots. He averaged 4.7 rebounds per game, and tallied 52 assists last season. Abromaitis shot a team-leading 42.9% from behind the three-point arc last season (minimum of 50 attempts), which included 81 made three pointers, also leading the team. He also finished second on the team in field goal percentage at 49.5 percent (minimum of 100 attempted shots). Abromaitis played in all 35 games last year, and started 26 of the contests.
Georgetown guard Austin Freeman was chosen as the BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year while Fab Melo of Syracuse was selected as the league’s preseason rookie of the year.
The preseason BIG EAST First Team featured Austin Freeman (Georgetown), Kemba Walker (Connecticut), Ashton Gibbs (Pittsburgh), Jeremy Hazell (Seton Hall), Corey Fisher (Villanova) and Kevin Jones (West Virginia).
Joining Abromaitis on the BIG EAST Second Team were: Chris Wright (Georgetown), Jimmy Butler (Marquette), D.J. Kennedy (St. John’s) and Kris Joseph (Syracuse).
Three players -Yancy Gates (Cincinnati), Darius Johnson-Odom (Marquette), and Rick Jackson (Syracuse) — comprise the preseason honorable mention team.
The league’s 16 head coaches chose both the preseason poll and all-conference first team with coaches not permitted to vote for their teams or players.
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