NEW YORK — Georgetown coach Ed Cooley had an ice-cold message for his Big East counterparts Wednesday night: Shame on you.

After the Hoyas were eliminated by DePaul in the first round of the conference tournament, Cooley took off on a tangent and called out his brethren who were responsible for awarding UConn forward Liam McNeeley the league’s Freshman of the Year trophy over Georgetown big man Thomas Sorber.

“Really disappointed that the right thing wasn’t done for a kid who more than earned it,” Cooley said at Madison Square Garden.

“If a kid is the Big East rookie of the week seven times, and the other kid is the Big East rookie of the week seven times, and they played about the same amount of games, one person had just as much production if not more, but had a major impact, not in the Big East, nationally — nationally — and he’s not recognized like that, shame on our coaches for not recognizing that,” Cooley said. “Seriously, shame on the coaches because that kid more than earned it, more than deserved it.”

The 6-foot-10 Sorber had season-ending surgery after injuring his left foot Feb. 15 in a loss at Butler. He was the Hoyas’ second-leading scorer and top rebounder, averaging 14.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.0 blocks over 24 games.

Georgetown went 8-12 in Big East play for a seventh-place finish, then fell to 17-15 overall with a 71-67 loss to 10th-seeded DePaul at MSG.

McNeeley missed eight conference games with a high ankle sprain, but returned in early February. He averaged 14.7 points and a team-best 6.2 rebounds in 23 games for the third-place Huskies (22-9, 14-6).

The touted recruit from Texas scored a season-high 38 points in a Feb. 11 victory at Creighton, a Big East record for a UConn rookie. He became the second consecutive Huskies player to win the freshman prize, following Stephon Castle last year.

Big East head coaches vote for the league’s major individual awards and are not permitted to pick their own players. McNeeley was presented with his trophy Wednesday afternoon during a ceremony inside MSG a couple of hours before the tournament began.

Cooley’s rant came in response to a postgame question about whether an eight-win improvement this season left him comfortable with the pace of Georgetown’s progress in his two years at the helm.

After saying he was “really proud” of the Hoyas for overcoming so many injuries this season, he mentioned that in his “humble opinion,” Sorber “bare minimum should have been the rookie of the year in this league.”

“His impact for us takes nothing away from McNeeley. Nothing at all,” Cooley said. “His impact, the fact that these coaches didn’t recognize that, I pray that that kid comes back. I pray he comes back. He will be the Big East Player of the Year. He will be a first-team All-American. He will be a lottery pick, and we will be cutting nets down next year in this building at this time come Saturday. That’s exactly the way I feel.”

Cooley wasn’t done, either.

He finished by saying: “Again, I’m praying my big boy comes back, because if he does, this room will look blue and gray.”

Then he pounded the table, got up and walked away.