The Coaches Voted. Now Watch the Little Guys.

The coaches voted Thursday in New York, and the Big East preseason poll tells you exactly who they're afraid of: UConn, first, 98 points, eight of eleven first-place votes. Nobody's surprised. That's the point of a preseason poll — it's a mirror, not a map.

The interesting ballots are the other three. St. John's got two first-place votes. Marquette got one — and Rick Pitino took credit for it before the day was over, which tells you everything about both Pitino and Marquette. Villanova sits third at 81 points, Marquette fourth at 73. The coaches think they know the order. The coaches are guessing.

Preseason Player of the Year: Silas Demary Jr., UConn's senior point guard — 10.1 points a game, a league-best 5.9 assists, All-Defensive team. The kind of player who makes everyone around him better and never makes the poster. Coaches love him. They should.

Preseason Freshman of the Year: Colben Landrew, UConn, 6-6, consensus five-star out of Wheeler High in Georgia — Gatorade Georgia Player of the Year, Mr. Georgia Basketball, and 11.3 points a game for Team USA at the FIBA U18 AmeriCup this summer. The NBA will discover him two years late. Write the name down now.

Villanova's no afterthought either — Tyler Perkins made the preseason First Team, Kwame Evans Jr. and Devin Royal the Second Team. The Wildcats will be heard from.

Next week it's the Big Ten's turn — media days October 7th and 8th in Rosemont. Ohio State brings Jake Diebler into year three off a 21-13 season and a long-awaited tournament return that ended against TCU; John Mobley Jr. (15.7 a game) and Amare Bynum carry the load now that Bruce Thornton is doing his work in the league. Rutgers brings interim coach Brandin Knight — Steve Pikiell shared his cancer diagnosis earlier this month, and the whole sport is pulling for him — plus Tariq Francis, who put up 17 a game last year after transferring in from NJIT, and captain Jamichael Davis.

The women's side has its own storyline — Rutgers opens the Gary Redus II era with Tennessee transfer Mia Pauldo, a McDonald's All-American who averaged 10.4 a game as a freshman in Knoxville and came home to Jersey. That's a homecoming worth watching.

THE LIST — three nobody's talking about yet, but will be. One: Colben Landrew, UConn. Five stars, zero hype outside Storrs, and a game that translates. Two: Tariq Francis, Rutgers. Seventeen a night out of the portal's quietest steal — NJIT to the Big Ten is a leap, and he already stuck the landing. Three: Samarian Franklin, Miles College. Sophomore guard, SIAC preseason Player of the Year — 12.4 points and 5.3 assists as a freshman, tenth in all of Division II in dimes, the top freshman in the country at it. The best point guard you've never heard of. Yet.