Who do you think wins the post season awards?
B1G player of the year- I think this comes down to Hayes and Swanigan. It's hard to ignore the numbers Swanigan is putting up, and if they continue, he probably wins. If the Badgers win the regular season title, then Hayes can win. Hayes may not put up the gaudy numbers, but his numbers are good all around, and coaches watch him shift over to defend the best player on the court and cool them down game after game. I think Swanigan wins the Media vote, and Hayes the coaches.
First team All Big Ten- Hayes and Swanigan obviously. I think Happ gets on here with his scoring efficiency and rebounding numbers. I think Blackmon gets on here too due to scoring. Shooting in the high 40s overall and 40s from 3 is hard to do with the volume of shots he takes. The 5th spot is up for grabs. Could be one of the bad teams rises up to the middle of the pack and a player like Jok, Hill, or Webster gets the credit and gets the last spot. Could be that Miles Bridges gets healthy soon, leads MSU into the top 3, and he claims the last spot. Could be a 2nd guy from IU or Purdue like Anunoby, Bryant or Edwards gets the spot if their team wins the title. For my guess, I'll say Trimble gets it together after today's rough outing and wins it.
Freshman of the year- Again, if Bridges gets healthy he should run away with this, but for the sake of argument let's say he doesn't. I still think the award stays in East Lansing with Ward. Ward is the only reason MSU is still has a chance at the title this year. He is the only player giving them easy points on the inside, and without it teams would focus on MSUs suspect perimeter game. He is also ripping down rebounds left and right, and his minutes should stay up as long as he can keep out of foul trouble.
What do you think Torvik? Or are my questions still too open ended for you?
Sorry, I think I had been drinking when answering the last set of questions.
ReplyDeleteI hope you're right that B1G POY comes down to Hayes and Swanigan. But Hayes will have to pick up the scoring. Although you may be right that coaches will pick up on your astute observations about Hayes's versatility and ability to defend anyone, it's generally a scorer's award. Hayes has the star power, so if he does start scoring more it's a possibility. But at this point Swanigan has a huge lead over Hayes and everyone else. Another problem with Hayes is that there's a vocal contingent that believes he is not the best player on his own team, and that Happ is the real MVP. Indeed, it may be that Happ is the real threat to Swanigan -- if he continues to rebound, assist and steal at this rate, and the Badgers win the conference, he could sneak into the discussion.
First team all-B1G. Swanigan is a lock. Hayes is pretty close to a lock, as the only returning first-teamer from last year. Agree that Blackmon will score enough to get there, unless Indiana really wilts. That leaves, in my opinion, several players competing for two spots: Happ, Trimble, Jok, Hill, Bryant, Bridges, Anunoby ... Jok, Trimble, and Hill are all seniors who were 2d-team last year, so that may give them a leg up. Happ, as I mentioned, is a dark-horse POY. I don't want to pick exactly the same as you so I will say Happ and Jok fill it out.
Freshman of the year. Agree Bridges should run away with this if healthy, and it sounds like he's set to come back this week. Other contenders: your guy Ward, his teammate Winston, Penn St. freshmen Carr and Stephens, Maryland's trio of Cowan, Jackson, and Huerter, Iowa's Bohannan, Purdue's Edwards. But for my non-Bridges pick I'm going to go out on a limb -- if it turns out that Minnesota is for real and wins 10 or 11 games, Amir Coffey is Freshman of the Year.