Our friends over at CSTV keep their eyes on the Wooden Award. While the rest of us focus on the day to day action, they maintain the Wooden site and have their own experts rate the top ten players of every given week. The large list that came out to start the season was recently trimmed to thirty, so I thought I'd show you who outplayed and outlasted to this point. Following the list, I'll give my own personal (incredibly highly subjective) top five, and invite you to do the same.
D.J. Augustin So. 6-0 G Texas
Michael Beasley Fr. 6-10 F Kansas State
Jon Brockman Jr. 6-7 F Washington
Chase Budinger So. 6-7 F Arizona
Mario Chalmers Jr. 6-1 G Kansas
Stephen Curry So. 6-1 G Davidson
Chris Douglas-Roberts Jr. 6-7 G Memphis
Wayne Ellington So. 6-4 G North Carolina
Shan Foster Sr. 6-6 G Vanderbilt
Eric Gordon Fr. 6-4 G Indiana
Jamont Gordon Jr. 6-4 G/F Mississippi State
Malik Hairston Sr. 6-6 G Oregon
Tyler Hansbrough Jr. 6-9 F North Carolina
Luke Harangody So. 6-8 F Notre Dame
James Harden Fr. 6-5 G Arizona State
Roy Hibbert Sr. 7-2 C Georgetown
Chris Lofton Sr. 6-2 G Tennessee
Kevin Love Fr. 6-10 C UCLA
Derrick Low Sr. 6-2 G Washington State
O.J. Mayo Fr. 6-5 G USC
Raymar Morgan So. 6-7 F Michigan State
Demarcus Nelson Sr. 6-4 G Duke
Tyrese Rice Jr. 6-1 G Boston College
Brian Roberts Sr. 6-2 G Dayton
Derrick Rose Fr. 6-3 G Memphis
Brandon Rush Jr. 6-6 G Kansas
Sean Singletary Sr. 6-0 G Virginia
Jason Thompson Sr. 6-11 F Rider
D.J. White Sr. 6-9 F Indiana
Sam Young Jr. 6-6 F Pittsburgh
That makes ten seniors, eight juniors, six sophomores, and six freshmen. I doubt that so many first-year players ever made the cut, but we all know this is a more than deserving class.
If I had to make my picks out of that group, I'd probably zero in on Michael Beasley, probably Hansbrough and Harangody, maybe Kevin Love... and, in a surprise even to myself, I think I'd pick D.J. White over his teammate Eric Gordon right now. Of course, the debate is open. Who are your top five finalists?
[The Wooden Award]
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Wooden List Narrowed to 30 Names
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8 comments:
D.J White
Harangody
Beasley
Love
Hansbrough
Apparently it's the season of the undersized PF in college basketball
You have probably uncovered a secret bias of mine. I didn't really think about their size when I picked them, but I did pick guys who tended to rack up big rebounding numbers in addition to scoring.
Of the five you listed, Love, Hasbrough, and White all have higher PPS ratings than Beasley. His is outstanding at 1.52 PPS, but Love has 1.85 and Hansbrough 1.76. Oddly, Eric Gordon (1.66) and DJ White (1.65) have almost exactly the same, so those two are a toss up. Harangody came in last at 1.37 PPS.
Due to my gigantic bias, I'd have to say Hansbrough gets it at this point. Sample size be damned, Love has underperfomed in losses, averaging 14 & 9, while Hansbrough has averaged 22.5 & 16 in two losses.
1.85 PPS is pretty damn outstanding though.
I didn't know we'd be comparing their P-P's. That's dedication.
And, to further answer Jack's initial jab, it will always be the season of the undersized PF in college, because the properly-sized PFs go pro early.
This is for the Wooden Award, not the title for who throws the ball off the backboard the hardest. Hansbrough can eat a dick.
"I didn't know we'd be comparing their P-P's. That's dedication."
Hey, if I'm going to be biased I might as well make an attempt to back up my pick with some numbers. That, and tempo-free statistics are all the rage these days.
I also say that unless it is an obvious choice (if Lebron had played a year of college, for example), the media will go with an upperclassman over a freshman they expect to be one and done. I think a lot of sportswriters are scared of this thing becoming the "outstanding freshman who should be a pro" award.
That was my weak attempt to turn it all into a dick joke. I felt it was destined to fail, but I had to try.
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