Rick Jackson Named Big East Defensive Player of the Year

It wasn't long until Rick Jackson got some consolation. One day after being left off the All-Big East First Team, the Syracuse big man has been named the Big East Defensive Player of the Year.

This should come as no surprise, since Rick Jackson has been a force inside for Syracuse all season, leading the Big East in blocked shots with 2.5 per game. He also leads the conference in rebounding (10.7 per game), the first Orange to do so since Derrick Coleman in 1989-1990.

Rick Jackson was voted the top defensive player, but not one of the league's top six players.
(Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)

However the same Big East coaches who voted Jackson as defensive player of the year somehow left him off the Big East first team. The first team selections appear especially strange because the six athletes chosen are all guards and are simply the leagues' top six scorers.

Regardless, this is great honor for Rick Jackson, and rightly deserved.

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