WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Marquette forward Justin Lewis has won the Big East’s most improved player award and Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner was voted the conference’s defensive player of the year. Providence Point guard Jared Bynum took the top sixth man prize, and Georgetown captain Donald Carey was honored with the league’s sportsmanship award. Lewis, rated the Big East’s best NBA prospect. The 6-foot-7 sophomore earned a spot on the all-Big East first team and won the league scoring title with an average of 18.2 points in conference games. Kalkbrenner, a 7-foot-1 sophomore, led the Big East with 80 blocked shots.
In other college basketball news:
— Wake Forest says second-year coach Steve Forbes has signed a “long-term” contract extension as he leads a rapid rise for the long-struggling Demon Deacons program Monday, the same day the Atlantic Coast Conference picked Forbes as coach of the year. The Demon Deacons have 23 wins and own the No. 5 seed for this week’s ACC Tournament.
— Juwan Howard has resumed his role as Michigan’s basketball coach after serving a five-game suspension for hitting a Wisconsin assistant in the head. Howard met individually with each player Monday. The Wolverines are on the NCAA Tournament bubble with a 17-13 record overall and 11-9 mark in the Big Ten. Howard will be back on the sideline Thursday in Indianapolis, leading the eighth-seeded Wolverines against ninth-seeded Indiana in the conference tournament quarterfinals.
