With the BIG EAST mens basketball tournament about to begin it means that it's about time for some awards to be handed out. Yesterday the Boston College Eagles provided two of the six players named to the All-BIG EAST First Team, Jared Dudley and Craig Smith. Sean Williams, a freshman on the team, was named to the All-Rookie Team, and Coach Al Skinner was named the Coach of the Year. When you have a season like this team did, it's to be expected that these awards make it their way. Of course, this is no time to rest on their laurels because there are a couple of tournaments to worry about.

The first round of the BIG EAST tourney begins tomorrow at New York's Madison Square Garden with 3 games involving seeds 6 through 11 and will continue through Saturday when the championship game is played (8:00 p.m. ESPN). This year's tournament holds a lot of signifigance because it will be the last BC will ever participate in. After this season the pending "breakup" between BC and the BIG EAST finally goes down. Sure, this breakup isn't as epic as Brad and Jen, Jake and Kirsten, Charlie and Denise, Shannon Elizabeth and ... that guy — but it's had its fill of drama! At first, some other BIG EAST teams had not been too keen on the idea, so the conference filed suit against the ACC. Twice. Ultimately nothing happened and BC, along with Miami and Virginia Tech, will be headed to try their luck in the ACC. Bostonist has a feeling, however, that they might need all the luck they can get.