Kadary Richmond Is Big East Player of the Year Material

Kadary Richmond has established himself among the Big East’s elite. The last couple of years at Seton Hall he’d been good, but wasn’t a star. Now he is. Richmond is a huge part of why Seton Hall, who was picked to finish 10th in DePaul and received only 1 more point than lowly DePaul, has been one of this season’s biggest surprises so far. Thanks in large part to him, the Pirates look dangerous and have already proven that they can be giant killers.

Kadary Richmond Is Big East Player of the Year Material

Kadary Richmond has helped Seton Hall already pull off some major upsets. They have beaten Providence (before they lost Bryce Hopkins), Marquette, and the defending champion UConn Huskies. In those three games, Richmond averaged 20 points per game, as well as 5.7 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game, and had eight steals against UConn. In a triple overtime thriller on Saturday in East Orange, Richmond had a 21 point, 11 rebound, and 11 assist triple-double against #18 Creighton. When the lights are bright, he shows up.

Richmond’s numbers across the board from the season are stellar, especially with where they rank among Big East players. His per-game averages rank 7th in points per game (16.2), 13th in rebounds per game (6.7), 6th in assists (4.6), and tied for 1st in steals (2.2). He is one of only two players (The other being Devin Carter of Providence.) in the conference to rank in the top 13 in all four of those categories. Those are also all career highs for the senior.

He was a good player before this year. Richmond was decent as a freshman at Syracuse after being a highly-touted recruit, but some friction there caused him to transfer. He has improved each of the past two seasons while at Seton Hall, but this year has been on a whole different level. It seems like he has finally reached his potential.

The craziest part of all of this is that no one expected Kadary Richmond to be this good. He did not make the Preseason All-Big East first or second teams, nor was he an Honorable Mention. But he’s here now, and is absolutely Big East Player of the Year material.