/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/49013357/GettyImages-506987720.0.jpg)
USA TODAY revealed their All-America teams on Monday and two BIG EAST players are featured on one of the squads.
Providence Friars guard Kris Dunn and Xavier Musketeers forward Trevon Bluiett were named to the third team, joining the likes of Georges Niang (Iowa State Cyclones), Ben Simmons (LSU Tigers) and Jarrod Uthoff (Iowa Hawkeyes) on that squad.
Dunn, the 2016 BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year, has been widely regarded as one of the best players in the country and perhaps the best in the BIG EAST all season while Bluiett had a terrific sophomore season for the highly touted Musketeers.
While USA TODAY now joins BECB in intriguingly noting Bluiett as a guard when he played as a forward for a majority of time here, one name that they perhaps egregiously omitted was Friars forward Ben Bentil. The Most Improved Player in the conference, Bentil was an outstanding scorer and a force for Providence and arguably was their best player at times.
It is, of course, tough to take a player off from here in favor of Bentil but the Wilmington, Delaware native was definitely deserving of recognition for his efforts this season. Perhaps even more so than Bluiett whom they named to the team, as the Xavier forward won't be up for BIG EAST Player of the Year when the award is revealed on Wednesday while the Friars forward will be.
Also intriguingly absent is Villanova Wildcats guard Josh Hart. Hart, who is actually a guard, unlike Bluiett, is also a BIG EAST Player of the Year contender and perhaps the best player for the vaunted Wildcats, the conference's regular season champions and a National Championship contender too. Hart's efficiency was his biggest strength and he was arguably better than Bluiett as well, so it's pretty interesting to see him away from this as well.