Sunday, February 16, 2014

All Big Ten

All Big Ten team is interesting this season with the depth of talent and lack of clear cut stars at the top. The best players on the best teams usually dominate this list, but even that is tricky this year. It doesn't matter whether you break it down by position or team, there are a lot of good players.
By the top teams:

MSU has 3 contenders in Appling, Harris and Payne, but all 3 have missed time due to injury. Even Valentine is a contender for 3rd team or honorable mention.

MU has Stauskus. Lavert and Robinson are contenders, but don't make 1st team.

Iowa has Marble and White and if Iowa wins a share of the title it's hard to see a Hawkeye not making 1st team, but no Iowa player gets more than 29 minutes per game.

UW-I will do a post about this later, but UW is so balanced no one may even make 2nd team, but UW may have six 3rd-teamers.

OSU is similar, although maybe not quite as deep.

By position

Center- Payne has to be the favorite, despite the missed time. McGary was the rival at the season's start, but injury derailed his year. Hammonds was the dark horse to win this, but he is a head case. Kaminsky and Vonleh have a claim here, but Payne is probably the winner. Amir Williams is probably honorable mention, but largely because there just aren't that many centers anymore.

Forward- Center and forward merge together on a lot of teams, and so do 2 guard and 3, so this is just my grouping for a forward that could be 1st team. I think White gets the first team nod, but there will likely be a split between coaches and media. Really 4 forwards have a claim on 1st team-Dekker, White, Ross and Robinson. They all score well and rebound but none differentiate from the others by a large margin. I think White will make 1st team on one poll, but the other's probably get skunked too, as I think Petteway gets the nod on one as a G-F. Nebraska has had a remarkable season, and Petteway's numbers are very good-2nd in Big Ten at 17.4 PPG, 37% from 3, 45% from the floor taking 1/3 of his shots from 3, gets to the line 5.4 times per game and shoots 82.4%. If he ends up on 3rd team it will be because Nebraska is a 2nd division team, and he turns the ball over 3.0 times per game.

Wings/Guards- There will be 2 or 3 first teamers in this category if Petteway finds his way to first team. Gary Harris seems like the Big Ten player of the year, and Nick Stauskus is right behind him, but there are a ton of great players right behind them with a claim as well. In addition to Petteway there is Marble, Newbill, Rice, Crawford and Dre Hollins all in the top 10 in scoring. Brust and Lavert are probably only in the conversation for 3rd team despite being very good.

Point Guard- With Appling's injury this probably goes to Yogi. Aaron Craft has not had a good year scoring the ball, but it's hard to quantify all the other things he does. Tim Frazier is also on the list somewhere and with PSU playing well he could get a nod, but he more likely ends up 3rd team.

Here is Adam's late-season All-B1G favorites. We'll see how the last few weeks play out and if anyone makes a move up.

1st team: Payne, White, Stauskus, Harris, Yogi

2nd team: Dekker, Ross, Petteway, Marble, Appling

3rd team: Vonleh, Robinson, Crawford, Dre Hollins, Frazier

Honorable Mention: Lavert, Rice, Newbill, and every other significant Badger and Buckeye.

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