DePaul guard Billy Garrett Jr. was named the Big East Rookie of the Year, the league announced at a press conference Wednesday at Madison Square Garden.
Garrett Jr., the son of Blue Demons assistant Billy Garrett, led Big East freshman in scoring (12.4 points per game), assists (90) and free throw percentage (81.9 percent). He also won the Big East Rookie of the Week award five times, most by any freshman. Garrett was named to the Big East All-Rookie Team earlier in the week, joining teammate Billy Hamilton IV.
In his final 13 games of the Big East season, Garrett averaged 14.9 points, including a career-best 26 points in an overtime loss to Marquette last month.
He joins Cleveland Melvin (2011) and Quentin Richardson as the only Blue Demons to earn Rookie of the Year honors. Melvin accomplished his award in the Big East, while Richardson won the award while DePaul was part of Conference USA.
Garrett was a top-100 recruit in last year's class out of Morgan Park. He chose to attend DePaul to play for his father over Florida State and UNLV.
The other awards handed out Wednesday included Player of the Year, Coach of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Creighton All-American Doug McDermott, the favorite to win National Player of the Year, took home Player of the Year honors, Villanova's Jay Wright was named Coach of the Year and Butler's Alex Barlow earned Scholar-Athlete of the Year, voted on by the Big East Academic Affairs Conference. The 10 Big East coaches voted on the other three honors.
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