Big East Awards
March 10, 2008 9:12 am by Coach OFor what it’s worth…. here are my awards for the season.
Player of the Year - Luke Harangody No one could have picked this preseason but he is POY hands down. He took the Irish from a 9th place prediction to a tie for 2nd.
Defensive Player of the Year - Hasheem Thabeet Not so much for what he did on the floor, but for what he made opposing coaches do to their game plan. Blocked shots are great…but only if it causes a change in possession. Not many of Thabeet’s blocks did that. However, teams had to completely change game plans when facing the Huskies.
Rookie of the Year - Donte Green I can’t believe most newspapers reporters are picking Jonny Flynn. No way! Flynn is good but Green is the one who SU needs to play well to win.
Coach of the Year - Mike Brey Again. Lost his two top scorers, picked 9th, finished tied for 2nd. Enough said.
All Big East - Luke Harangody, David Padgett, Sam Young, A.J. Price, Joe Alexander, Kyle McAlarney
All Rookie - Donte Green, Jonny Flynn, Dominique Jones, DeJuan Blair, Dar Tucker, Jeremy Hazell
Sportsmanship Award - Jim Calhoun Leading 90-38 with 4 minutes left over a Cincinnati team stranded in a snowstorm for a day, Calhoun had his five starters on the floor. TV commentators continued to remark about reasons for this but couldn’t find a good one. Calhoun finally put his No Names (walk-ons at UConn don’t rate to have their names on jerseys as do scholarship players) into the game with 1 minute left and told them not to shoot. I’m sure Mick Cronin would second my pick here!
Categories: Commentary, Coach O
8 Responses to “Big East Awards”
No love for Georgetown at all?
Gtown is a tremendous TEAM! The problem here is that with their outstanding team concept, all league teams look more at individual standouts. I thought Hibbert should be there, but at whose expense? Also Wallace deserves a lot of consideration. Again, he is more of a team player. I didn’t single out Georgetown for no awards and neither did the Big East. Just that I didn’t want 11 players on my all-league team. The real awards are what count, not my opinions.
You have to admit it is pretty funny that you don’t have a single Georgetown player on your all Big East or all rookie team. I mean seriously - you are picking a college all star team from the Big East - and you don’t pick Roy Hibbert in your top 5. Hmmmm.
But you do pick Sam Young and Joe Alexander.
Terrific.
I’m not sure if Hibbert deserves to be in the top 5, honestly. While he’s immensely talented and has a huge impact on the game, he also isn’t statistically that impressive.
That said, he actually is better statistic vs. statistic than David Padgett, so I do think Hibbert deserves to be there instead of Padgett.
My man Alexander has been tearing it up lately!
If you were building a team, who would you pick…..Hibbert or Padgett? I would take Padgett for his all-around game.
Therein lies the difference.
I’d take Hibbert. He’s 7-2 and has more upside than Padgett.
My top three are easy.
AJ Price, Luke Harangody and Joe Alexander all need to be in the first five.
After that, I’d take Deonta Vaughn.
Hibbert vs. Padgett????????????
Does anyone have some stats on them? I’m torn on who is my top five, and would love some help.
No I don’t have him in my top 5…… Quarterfinals….vs. Nova……
Hibbert….. 0 points…… 3 rebounds…..5 fouls…..
I rest my case!
Care to comment?