NEW YORK - Georgetown was back in the Final Four last season for the first time since 1985. The Hoyas, with four starters returning from the team that lost to Ohio State in the national semifinals, start 2007-08 as a co-favorite in the Big East preseason coaches poll.

Louisville, which returns its top seven scorers from a 24-10 team, was selected as the co-favorites in the poll released Wednesday.

“The preseason poll, for lack of a better word, is a popularity contest. It won’t even matter when the ball goes up in a couple of weeks,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. “Last year as a whole was a motivation for this group which has stayed focused through the offseason. This group won’t be satisfied with the success of last season. We are a different team this year, different strengths, different weaknesses. Now we have to work and this group understands that.”

Leading that group is the Big East preseason player of the year, 7-foot-2 center Roy Hibbert. He and Villanova guard Scottie Reynolds, the league’s rookie of the year last season, were the only unanimous selections to the preseason all-conference team.

Georgetown lost Jeff Green, last season’s conference player of the year as a junior, from the team that won the league’s regular-season and tournament titles and finished 30-7.

Hibbert said he and his teammates want to make sure Georgetown stays a big part of the national scene, the way it was throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

“People forgot about Georgetown for a while, but now we’re back,” he said. “You could say we were on a hiatus.”

Hibbert turned down millions as a sure NBA lottery pick to return for his senior season. He’s proud to be another of the big men who have played for Georgetown over the last two decades, joining the likes of Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo.

“It’s an exclusive club, we don’t let a lot of members in,” he said with a laugh. “I want to be a physical player like Alonzo, a defensive presence like Dikembe and I want to lead my team to a championship like Patrick. I played with them over the summer in the open gym and Dikembe would block my shots and wave his finger. I would try to get physical with Alonzo but he knows what to do and it wouldn’t bother him. They tell me what I have to do to get better and improve.”

Georgetown and Louisville both received eight first-place votes and 217 points in the balloting of the league’s 16 coaches.

“I think this year, more than any other year, you can’t pick a favorite,” Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. “This is the deepest I’ve seen the Big East in some time.”

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The Cardinals finished last season winning 19 of their last 25 games and were eliminated in the second round of the NCAA tournament by Texas A&M.

“We have the most talent we’ve had since I’ve been at Louisville,” said Pitino, who is starting his seventh season with the Cardinals. “We have a very experienced backcourt.”

Marquette was third in the voting followed by Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Connecticut, Villanova and Providence in the top half of the league. Notre Dame was ninth followed by West Virginia, DePaul, Cincinnati, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Rutgers and South Florida.

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Centers David Padgett of Louisville and Kentrell Gransberry of South Florida and Georgetown guard Jonathan Wallace were the other seniors chosen to the 11-man preseason team.

Marquette teammates Dominic James and Jerel McNeal were among the six juniors selected along with Jeff Adrien of Connecticut, Terrence Williams of Louisville, Geoff McDermott of Providence and Eric Devendorf of Syracuse.

Syracuse teammates Donte Greene and Jonny Flynn were chosen as co-preseason rookies of the year.

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