Shamorie Ponds is the Big East Player of the Week

A foregone conclusion, we would say, but Shamorie Ponds was named Big East Player of the Week.

The preseason Big East Player of the Year, Ponds stepped up after a Big East opener loss to Seton Hall to drop 26 and 37 points in wins over Marquette and Georgetown, respectively.

He averaged 31.5 points, 5.5 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals, posting usage rates of 35% and 33% of St. John’s possessions and pulling the Johnnies to a pair of wins, doing things like this:

Will Ponds receive some national accolades as well after picking up his eighth Big East weekly honor this season? The NCAA’s official site has named him Player of the Week nationally.

A look at the Big East honors, by how many weeks each player has received the honor, via twitter user yelbeez:

The Big East Freshman of the Week was Joey Hauser of Marquette.

Also on the Big East Honor Roll:

• Kamar Baldwin, guard, Butler
• Martin Krampelj, forward, Creighton
• Greg Malinowski, guard, Georgetown
• Myles Powell, guard, Seton Hall
• Phil Booth, guard, Villanova

St. John’s awaits what should be the first week of being nationally ranked this season after taking out #16/ #18 Marquette last week at home. NBC’s College Basketball Talk and NCAA.com’s Andy Katz already have St. John’s favorably ranked.