NEW YORK CITY – Mike Sweetney, junior forward on the Georgetown men’s basketball team and one of the premier forwards in the Big East Conference, earned yet another honor this week. On Wednesday, the conference named Sweetney one of six players to earn preseason All-Big East first team honors. The announcement came as part of Big East Media Day.

Joining Sweetney on the first team roster is Pittsburgh’s senior guard and Big East preseason player of the year, Brandin Knight. Rounding out the team are senior guard Troy Bell of Boston College, sophomore center Emeka Okafor of Connecticut, iami’s junior forward Darius Rice and senior guard Marcus Hatten from St. John’s.

Sweetney, along with Head Coach Craig Esherick and senior forward Courtland Freeman, attended Wednesday’s media event, as did coaches and players from the conference’s other 13 teams.

The humble Sweetney said he is honored by the selection, but that the upcoming season is his prime focus right now. Last season he averaged 19 points and 10 rebounds per game, while shooting a conference-high 56.7 percent from the field. These statistics were good enough to earn him All-Big East first team honors last season.

Coaches are also speculating on prospects and predictions for the coming season.

“It’s tight but it really isn’t,” Rutgers Head Coach Gary Waters said of the conference. “Pittsburgh’s going to be good. Georgetown is strong and the other two that are very strong are going to be Syracuse and Notre Dame.”

Continuing the theme of focusing on the present, Sweetney declined to comment on the possibility of going pro, repeating that the team and the coming season are his main concern.

Other announcements at the Big East event included the selection of UConn and Pittsburgh as coach’s picks for conference division champions. The two teams met in last season’s Big East championship game, in which UConn prevailed. Georgetown finished second in the West division and third overall in the preseason polls despite being the only team among the top-seven picks to receive no first-place votes.

“It’s a really balanced league this year; there’s a lot of parity in it. You go from one to five and on any given night, they can beat one another,” Louis Orr, head coach at Seton Hall, said. “After that, you’ve got teams that, if they’re playing well, you’ve got problems too.”

Notes: Georgetown announced that both junior guard Gerald Riley and junior guard/forward Ramell Ross were injured this week. Ross, who missed all of last season because of foot surgery, dislocated his shoulder. Riley, who averaged 10 points starting at shooting guard and small forward last season, has a stress fracture in his right foot. Both are expected to return by the end of November before the Hoyas’ first true test of the season at home against South Carolina on Dec. 5.