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West Virginia features half a dozen players with connections to the New York metropolitan area, including 6-foot-7 senior forward Da'Sean Butler of Newark, N.J., and 6-9 sophomore forward Devin Ebanks of Long Island City, N.Y.

Butler was named to the preseason All-Big East first team and Ebanks made the second team when the preseason awards were announced during Wednesday's media day.

"With [Ebanks] and [Butler], I think we have as good a pair of forwards as there are in the country," said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, whose team was picked second in the preseason poll behind No. 1 Villanova. "Dev's gained 30 pounds and Da'Sean had a great summer playing in the World University Games. I think all of our guys are much better. We're so much bigger and stronger than we were a year ago."

The New York metropolitan connection runs strong at West Virginia.

Huggins' roster also includes senior forward Wellington Smith of Summit, N.J.; sophomore guard Darryl "Truck" Bryant of Brooklyn; sophomore forward Kevin Jones of Mount Vernon, N.Y.; and freshman forward Danny Jennings of Staten Island.

"They're good players," Huggins said. "We came in to recruit Kevin Jones and then ended up recruiting Truck and Devin and then Danny, and Da'Sean and Wellington were already there. This area's been great for us. We're going to continue to try to come in here and get people."

The Mountaineers finished 23-12 last season, 10-8 in the Big East, and fell to Dayton in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

After averaging 17.1 points and 5.9 rebounds last season, Butler spent part of the summer in Serbia with the U.S. team on a World University Games team that also featured Corey Fisher of Villanova and Lazar Hayward of Marquette. The squad finished third and captured the bronze medal.

"It was a hostile environment, everybody on the team played well together, played hard," Butler said. "Unfortunately, it just didn't turn out the way we wanted it to. But it was an experience just to go to another country, see how things are, and just be thankful that I'm in America."

Ebanks averaged 10.5 points and 7.8 boards but has now bulked up to close to 220 pounds.

"It changed it a lot," Ebanks said, referring to his game. "It's a lot harder to bump me off the ball. When I'm driving to the basket, I'm finishing a lot of plays now. A lot of and-ones, so I definitely feel the change."

"He's been doing a lot of damage to me, honestly," Butler said of Ebanks. "Outside, inside, as far as his complete game and overall, he's gotten way better. And that killer instinct thing is coming in a lot, especially this year. I have a feeling he'll have a great year."

Said Huggins: "I think he had a pretty big year a year ago. He's expanded his game. He's so much stronger and he's so much more confident and he's shooting the ball so much better."

Bryant (9.8 points per game) and Jones (6.3) were the team's third- and fourth-leading returning scorers and should have even bigger roles this season.

Both Bryant and junior point guard Joe Mazzulla faced suspensions for off-the-court events, but have since returned to the team in good standing.

"They're fine. It's over with, we're moving on," Huggins said.

Huggins says the 6-8, 265-pound Jennings could be the team's "best athlete."

With all that talent and experience, this year the goals are to compete for Big East and national championships.

"I definitely feel it's going to be our year to make a run," Ebanks said.

Stephenson still waiting: Brooklyn's Lance Stephenson, a Cincinnati freshman, was named the Big East preseason rookie of the year. The 6-foot-5 Stephenson is still waiting to be cleared by the NCAA clearinghouse regarding amateurism issues.

"We're waiting," said Bearcats coach Mick Cronin, whose team was picked No. 7 in the poll. "He's cleared academically so we're just waiting on the amateur thing. He's not the only one going through it, so a lot of the elite players are going through it. We'll see. Hopefully it's done before the first game, I know that."

Free throws: The Big East and Madison Square Garden reached an agreement that the Garden would host the Big East Tournament through 2016. ... Last year the first day of the tournament was not televised, but that has been remedied this season. ESPN2 will show the first session of day one, and ESPNU with show the second session. The remaining 11 games will be shown on ESPN.