by Blers » March 3rd, 2020, 1:40 pm
I woulda swapped Robbins and Phyfe. Robbins gets a lot more defensive attention whereas AJ consistently draws doubles pulling his man/help defense away from Phyfe (plus Berhow and Haldeman are constant threats from distance) which gives him so much more space to work with that most other bigs in the league. That’s not Phyfe’s fault by any means though. He’s still really talented and has been KILLING the boards so I get it.
I woulda had Berhow at least third team, but my guess is there’s some recency bias as his last 5 games weren’t as eye popping as most of his season/I wonder if some of my points against Phyfe (AJ attention, more space to work with due to other shooters around him, not drawing the defenses best defender) affected him. Still, that seems like the one big miss. I could see Kennell up to second team (he CARRIED Bradley at times, especially in a season where Brown's shot wasn't great), Berhow third, and (Keandre Cook, Roman Penn, or even Tate Hall off the list entirely)… Even then though, I wouldn’t feel good about kicking any of those guys off. There were a lot of really good players this year.
Woulda liked to see Clemons on the Newcomer team over one of the two freshman. Our season really changed drastically when he became available. I don’t really understand why freshman can be on both teams… it just seems redundant; but hey, Domask and LaRavia earned recognition.
For specialty awards my guess is:
COY: Jake, but it’s close with Mullins
FOY-Domask, easily.
NOY: No idea. Maybe Domask again? I’ve seen a few beat writers say they voted for Tate Hall, which I’d be stoked about, but also surprised since he was quietly really solid all year (hit at least 9 points in 25 games this year, at least 10 in 22), without ever winning newcomer of the week.
Sixth Man: Kennedy, has had a huge impact on a lot of games.
Defensive Player of the Year: Brown or Williamson. Easily the two best on ball defenders in the league, thought Brown deserved it last year, and as a senior (with a longer wingspan and the 1 seed), I think he gets it. Freeman racks up steals, but I don’t know if you necessarily fear him taking someone out of the game just yet, but he’s obviously really good at gambling on passes and picking pockets. Robbins obviously is a shot blocker but I agree I thought teams found a way around him by late January. Williams is rock solid, I just think he’s half a step behind Brown and Williamson.