4-1-Zoo: Gibbs Is Big East Preseason POY
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The FAN) — Pitt guard Ashton Gibbs was selected as the Big East Player of the Year by the media Wednesday at the league's annual media day at the New York Athletic Club.
Gibbs, entering his senior year, is also a Naismith Award candidate. He has earned other honors such as the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award, Lindy's Big East Player of the Year, Athlon Big East Player of the Year, Sporting News All-America Third Team and a Dick Vitale First-Team All-America (Solid Gold).
Gibbs led Pitt in scoring last season with 16.8 points per game. He also ranked third nationally in 3-point field goal percentage (49.0), led the Big East in 3-point field goals made (102) and ranked second in the league in free-throw percentage (88.9).
He also passed the 1,000-point mark for his career last season — just the 39th player in program history to do so. Over his first three seasons, Gibbs has totaled 1,207 career points, averaged 12.1 points per game, converted 216-of-490 3-point field goals (44.1 pct.) and hit 233 of 265 free-throws (87.9 pct).
He was chosen to speak at media day and described how much it has meant to play for Pitt in the Big East.
"Being able to play in the best conference against some of the best teams and players in the country has definitely built my confidence," Gibbs said in his opening remarks at media day.
"Playing in the Big East has given me the level of competitiveness that I didn't have prior to college, that I will take with me for the rest of my life," Gibbs later added.
I got to talk to Gibbs briefly at a dinner over the weekend and he said his offseason focus heading into this season was working on creating more offense, whether it be for himself or teammates. You can listen to the interview here.
"Basically, create for myself, create for others a lot more," Gibbs said. "That's what coach Dixon really wanted me to do when I sat down with him after last season. We had different meetings, and that's really what I came to do, and play defense.
"At the end of the day I just want to win. All the individual accolades will take care of (themselves). The more you win the better everything looks."
--
Chris Gates | Area 4-1-Zoo Blog
Twitter.com/Chris_Gates
Chris.Gates@cbsradio.com
