End of the line in the Big 10 regular season. At the Hobbserver, we will give out our Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year, 1st, 2nd and 3rd team All Big 10, the All Freshman team and the Defensive Player of the Year. Should be an exhausting post to read.
Player of the Year
No matter what anyone says about Jordan Taylor and what he has done at Wisconsin this year, Player of the Year in the Big 10 is a two man race. The award must go to either JaJuan Johnson or Jared Sullinger. I'll make the case for each.
Sullinger is the focal point offensively for the Big 10 Champ and arguably the best team in the country. Sullinger is a classic low post player with range out to the three point line. His numbers speak for themselves, averaging 17.1 points and 9.8 rebounds per game over the course of the full season. Sullinger's overall numbers do not look as good as Johnson's, but that is in large part because Ohio State has more weapons offensively than Purdue so Ohio State does not need a 20 and 10 from Sullinger every night to win. His marquee game was a 27 point 16 rebound performance in a 73-68 win at Illinois. And in Ohio State's two losses, he had 25 and 6 at Purdue and 19 and 12 at Wisconsin.
JaJuan Johnson averaged 20.5 points and 8.1 rebounds per game to go along with 2.4 blocks on the second best team in the Big 10. Johnson is not your classic big man. He is much longer than Sullinger (hence the higher block totals), but he is not as solid so he needs to work harder to get position inside and has a tendency to turn himself into a jump shooter. Unlike Sullinger, however, Johnson really only had one other scoring option on the floor with him (E'Twaun Moore) so he needed to carry the load night in and night out. His best game was a 20 point 17 rebound 7 block night against Michigan State. In Purdue's losses, Johnson had 29 and 11 at Minnesota, 22 and 7 at Ohio State, 23 points and 4 rebounds at Wisconsin and 22 and 12 at Iowa.
So who gets the nod? JaJuan Johnson is the Hobbserver Big 10 player of the year. Johnson gets the nod because, without him, Purdue is at best a bubble team. With Johnson, they are battling for a 2 seed in the tournament. If you take Sullinger off Ohio State, Dallas Lauderdale has to play more minutes at center and Buford, Diebler and Lighty have a greater scoring load, but the Buckeyes comfortably make the tournament (think a poor man's version of the 05-06 Villanova team). The combination of slightly better numbers, the fact that Johnson had a greater ability to change a game with his shot blocking (re-watch the 7 block game at Michigan State), and the fact that he was more important to his team makes JaJuan Johnson the Hobbserver 2010-2011 Big 10 Player of the Year.
1st Team All Big 10
F - Jared Sullinger
F - JaJuan Johnson
F - Jon Leuer
G - Jordan Taylor
G - Taylor Battle
We talked about Sullinger and Johnson already. Jordan Taylor is clearly the best guard, and third best player in the league. Taylor averaged 18.6 points 4.9 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game while shooting 47% from the floor. But here are the stunning numbers for Taylor: over the course of the Big 10 season, Taylor never turned the ball over more than twice in a game. Read that again. That is an utterly absurd stat for a point guard. Taylor ended the season with a 4.15 to 1 assist to turnover ratio. Add to that the games Taylor put Wisconsin on his back (18 points in 8 minutes in the win over Ohio State, 39 points in a close win over Indiana) and you have the best season from a guard in the Big 10. Not a lot of draft buzz about Taylor (a Junior) yet. If he comes back, he is the prohibitive favorite for 2011-12 player of the year.
Taylor Battle is a guy we have talked A LOT about this year. And his numbers (20.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 3.1 assists) speak for themselves (and shot 43.6% from the floor). The amount of attention Battle drew made life good for his teammates. Penn State put themselves into bubble consideration for a decent part of the season and made Happy Valley a very difficult place to play. And you can thank Taylor Battle for that.
Jon Leuer was the toughest addition to this team. He edged out E'Twaun Moore and Kalin Lucas for the final spot. While Moore and Lucas may have had more spectacular games, they were not nearly as consistent as Leuer, who scored in double figures in every single game in the Big 10. Leuer averaged 19 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks per game, while shooting 48% from the floor, 40% from 3 and 85% from the free throw line.
2nd Team All Big 10
G - Kalin Lucas
G - E'Twaun Moore
G - Darius Morris
F - Trevor Mbakwe
F - Mike Davis
I know, I know. Mike Davis as 2nd team All Big 10?! Well, I can't have a 4 guard 2nd team (maybe a good reason to have moved Leuer down - but it isn't fair to penalize Leuer because the Big 10 frontcourts are terrible). After Sullinger, Johnson, Leuer and Mbakwe, the best forwards in the Big 10 are Davis and Draymond Green. Green has been awful in the last month of the season (scored in double figures once in his last five games). Davis, on the other hand, has been Illinois' most consistent player over the last month, failing to score in double figures just once in the last 8 games for the Illini. Davis may mope around sometimes, and he may not grab the tough rebounds in traffic, but his consistent jump shot from inside 17 feet and active movement around the basket makes him a good scorer. Davis averaged 12.2 points and 7.1 rebounds per game for the Illini this year.
Now that we have that out of the way, E'Twaun Moore was the toughest omission from the 1st team. His stats speak for themselves (18.3 points 5.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists). And he had maybe the best shooting game in the Big 10 this year, scoring 38 points on 13-18 shooting in a home win over Ohio State. Keeping Moore off the first team, he was 2-14 in a road loss at Minnesota and 4-13 in a road loss at Ohio State. He also had games where he shot 2-10 (win over Penn State), 5-15 (win over Iowa), 3-13 (win over Minnesota) and 8-19 (win over Wisconsin). Just too many inconsistent nights to make the first team. Now, to his credit, Moore drew the other team's best perimeter defender every single night. And without a reliable third scorer, Moore needed a lot of shots for Purdue to win games. E'Twaun Moore headlines the second team.
Kalin Lucas was the other difficult omission from the 1st Team. Lucas has absolutely willed Michigan State onto the bubble. Lucas scored fewer than 17 points once in his last 11 games (14 in a loss at Ohio State) and with the season long disappearance of Durrell Summers and the late season struggles of Draymond Green, Lucas has essentially been a one man offense for the Spartans.
Darius Morris is one of my favorite players in the Big 10. And yes, I took Morris over any of the Ohio State guards. No guard in the Big 10 filled up a stat sheet better (15.1 points 6.8 assists and 4 rebounds on 49% shooting). Morris is a unique player. He is a 6'4" point guard who is not an elite shooter (only 25% from 3). But he runs Michigan's offense so well and is the key to them being on the tournament bubble heading into the Big 10 Tournament.
Trevor Mbakwe is Mr. Consistent. The leading rebounder in the Big 10 (10.4 a game) and a double double machine, Mbakwe lacks the scoring punch of the big guys above him (13.9 points per game), but Mbakwe is the big guy everyone in the Big 10 wishes they had.
3rd Team
G - William Buford
G - Juice Thompson
G - David Lighty
F - Draymond Green
F - Keaton Nankovil
Buford averaged 14.3 points per game and carried the scoring load for Ohio State in several games. The 6'5" Junior shooting guard will be one of the favorites for Player of the Year next year if he comes back. More than anyone on this list, Buford's numbers are deflated because he is not the number 1 option (behind Sullinger) and he needs to share the ball with Diebler and Lighty in the backcourt.
Juice Thompson was Northwestern's best player during the Big 10 season. He stepped up after Shurna's injury, scoring fewer than 16 points just once in Northwestern's final 10 games. Plus, Thompson was amazing in Northwestern's marquee win (71-70 home win over Northwestern where Thompson scored 22 points). That squeezes Thompson in over the bigger names (Shurna and McCamey).
David Lighty does not have the best numbers (12.3 points 4 rebounds 3.4 assists and 1.7 steals) but Lighty certainly has the scoring ability. He sacrifices shots for his teammates while drawing the other teams best offensive option night in and night out. Lighty's value to Ohio State gets him onto the third team.
Draymond Green is too good to keep off an All Big 10 team in spite of his major struggles down the stretch (reaching double figures only once in the Spartans last 5 games), but he is a great rebounder (8.3 per game) and opportunistic defensively (1.7 steals per game as a power forward). Third team is the right place for Green.
Keaton Nankovil is an interesting player. He's 6'8", but averages just over 4 rebounds a night. Still Nankovil is a 47% 3 point shooter and acts as Wisconsin's third scorer. When Nankovil plays well, so does Wisconsin. And for that, Nankovil edges out Mike Tisdale, Jeff Brooks and Christian Watford for the final forward spot.
Toughest omissions - Christian Watford (missed three games with injury and for a scorer, only had more than 14 once in the 5 games since he came back), John Shurna (numbers inflated because he was significantly better prior to the Big 10 season), and Demetri McCamey (say what you will about McCamey - and I have in this blog - but McCamey had an excellent start and end to the Big 10 season. He is off the team because of a 6 game stretch where McCamey had games of 5 points, 6 points, 6 points and 4 points in losses to Ohio State, Indiana and Purdue. Juice Thompson didn't have bad games like that, Lighty is too good defensively, and Buford's numbers would have been far better if he and McCamey traded places).
All Freshman Team
F - Sullinger (Freshman of the Year and covered in the Player of the Year section)
F - Melsahn Basabe
F - Jereme Richmond
G - Aaron Craft
G - Tim Hardaway Jr.
I've written about Basabe a lot. Four 20-10s in Big 10 play. Over his last 7 games, he had (points and rebounds) 20-13, 13-11, 4-4 (Trevor Mbakwe owned him), 13-7, 19-8, 17-7, 13-4 and 11-8. Basabe is an extremely athletic 6'7" and he is going to be an absolute handful next year.
Jereme Richmond was something of a disappointment his Freshman year. We have been hearing since his Freshman year of high school that he was one and done. Richmond beat the buzzer against Texas to force overtime in November. But Richmond is more limited as a scorer (needs to improve his jump shooting) than advertised. Still Richmond showcased a high basketball IQ, moving without the ball and finishing around the basket. He ended up averaging 7.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game and had an 18-10 against Ohio State. Richmond sneaks onto the team.
Aaron Craft's impact is not as a scorer (7.1 points 4.6 rebounds 2.6 rebounds and 2.1 steals). Craft defended hard every night and played around 30 minutes a night for the best team in the conference and that's enough for him to make this team.
Tim Hardaway Jr is the best scorer other than Sullinger on this list. Hardaway absolutely came into his own down the stretch. He scored 30 in an overtime win at Iowa. He scored 26 in a close win over Indiana. He scored 22 in a crucial road win over Minnesota. And he scored 20 points (all in the 2nd half) in a must win victory over Michigan State, matching Kalin Lucas shot for shot down the stretch. With Morris and Hardaway, Michigan is in good shape heading into 2011-12.
Defensive Player of the Year
David Lighty. David Lighty's impact defensively is best quantified by a sequence in a home win over Illinois. Over the stretch of 3 or 4 possessions, Lighty had 2 steals that led to dunks as Illinois was creeping back into the game. The steals effectively sealed the game for Ohio State. The best defender on the best team in the conference is the easy choice for this award.
Thanks for reading. I will be at the Big 10 Tournament all 4 days (probably will miss a couple games Thursday and maybe the first game Friday for work) but will try to post reports after each day.
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