NEW YORK -- Here are five observations from Big East basketball media day:
1. Big East commissioner Val Ackerman began media day here making her position on the shifts in college athletics -- and that of her league presidents -- abundantly clear.
"I think it's important from a national level to acknowledge that college sports programs are just that -- college programs," said the former WNBA and USA Basketball president. "The difference between the professional level and the college level is night and day. … College athletes are not employees."
That said, Ackerman and the Big East know that in order to survive, they have to keep up with the big boys. Absent football money and some of the traditional programs that have made the league's brand in the past, conference members recognize that playing ostrich to the changes will only hurt their teams.
As the Power 5 wins autonomy and heads toward cost of attendance, the Big East schools have no intention of falling behind. The presidents have all agreed that, going forward, their response will be simple.
As Providence coach Ed Cooley said simply, "Whatever the football five do, the Big East will be right there with them."
2. A year after the Big East counted arguably the best college basketball player in the country among its players, the league is lacking star power.
Now to be fair, Doug McDermott doesn't come along every year and no one was gong to match the Creighton's star appeal.
Still it's interesting that there is no real face of this league -- not a player's anyway -- at least not yet.
D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera was chosen as the preseason player of the year but he is hardly an obvious pick. The Georgetown guard, a second-team selection last year, averaged 17.6 points per game for a team that finished a pedestrian 18-15 last season.
Truth be told, any of the first-team selections -- Butler's Kellen Dunham, St. John's D'Angelo Harrison, Villanova's JayVaughn Pinkston, and Xavier's Matt Stainbrook -- could have been tabbed the favorite.
Is that a problem for the Big East? Maybe, maybe not.
"If you look at last year, were we a better conference just because we had Doug McDermott in the league?” Georgetown's John Thompson III said. "Having good players is important, but having good teams is more important."
3. Looney Tunes might be a little before his time, but Kris Dunn knows who the Tasmanian Devil is.
He is the Tasmanian Devil.
That's what his coach calls him.
And that's how he's playing.
"Yeah, I probably get going a little too fast sometimes because I just want to go," the Providence sophomore said.
Hard to blame him. Only a sophomore, Dunn has been snakebit by injury, missing the better part of his freshman season with a torn labrum and then all but three games last year with a recurrence of the same injury.
Heralded as the recruit that would guide the Friars back to the tourney, he instead sat on the sidelines as Providence earned its way to March without him.
Dunn was finally cleared last month and now is just biding his time, waiting for a game.
"One thing you won't hear from me -- I won't complain," Dunn said. "Not once. I'm so happy to be playing again, you won't hear me complain once."
4. Growing up in Baltimore, Steve Wojciechowski was caught on the bubble between Maryland-loving ACC fans and D.C.-favoring Big East aficionados.
His allegiances were always clear.
"My favorite player growing up was Len Bias," he said. "I had a poster of him on my wall, so I was always more of an ACC guy."
Now after spending both his playing and coaching lifetime in that league, Wojciechowski makes the jump to the Big East, as the new head coach at Marquette.
No doubt there are differences between the two leagues -- especially as the ACC expands by swallowing up Big East members Louisville, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Syracuse -- but Wojciechowski said that his new league is a lot like his former employer, if not his former conference.
The appeal of Marquette -- along with the obvious history of success -- was to work at a place and in a league where basketball was at the top of the pecking order, just as it is at Duke.
"We are in the driver's seat," he said. "We're a priority. Even the really good programs that have football are still riding shotgun."
5. Some dribbles: Villanova was one vote shy of the unanimous selection to win the Big East. Georgetown received the lone outlier vote. … Chris Mack's daughter, Lainee, made her second Big East media day appearance, sitting next to her dad at the Xavier table. Of his 9-year-old daughter, Mack quipped, ‘This is old hat to her. She's been to more media days than Matt here,' motioning to senior center Matt Stainbrook, sitting to Mack's left. ... DePaul was picked last in the league, continuing a trend of ignominy. In the last six years, the Blue Demons have only been picked higher than last just once. In 2012, DePaul started the preseason picked to finish 13th. The Blue Demons ended up finishing last. DePaul has had one winning league record since joining the league in 2005 and has won just 30 Big East games in that time. ... St. John's coach Steve Lavin turned media day into casual Wednesday, sporting a warm-up suit to the festivities. Perhaps he jogged over from his Manthattan home?