Valley Player of the Year

[uniftw]

I think Wichita St is better with Stutz on the bench.

Doesn't mean they are better without him though.

It could be said UNI was better without Jordan Eglseder on the floor (granted he was never in the POY discussion), but UNI wasn't better without him....


It's very odd how players like that work.

[shockem]

I'm curious if everyone still thinks it's crazy to think someone other than Douglas E. Fresh may win the award?

[ShockValue]

I'm curious if everyone still thinks it's crazy to think someone other than Douglas E. Fresh may win the award?

It's not crazy but McD will win. I'm not a fan of the best player on the best team automatically getting an award. I felt Shy Ely should have won when Woodfox did. I'm as big a homer as anyone but no one had a season like McD.

[DoubleJayAlum]

I'm curious if everyone still thinks it's crazy to think someone other than Douglas E. Fresh may win the award?

The interesting thing about this whole discussion is that WSU fans point to their blow out win over CU as the reason to give the award to Stutz. The problem with that is that Stutz was completely shut down and overwhelmed by Echenique in that game, just like has has been in each of the other three games the two faced each other.

As I said after the first game, WSU is a better team (at least against the Jays) with Stutz on the bench. In both games, they went on huge runs while Stutz was riding pine. If we play again, I almost hope that we don't go right at Stutz as he is much easier to match up against than the smaller, significantly quicker lineup that WSU throws out there when he's in foul trouble.

[Jays26]

I'm curious if everyone still thinks it's crazy to think someone other than Douglas E. Fresh may win the award?

Crazy...heck no!

Will anyone else win it besides Doug......doubt it!

[CaliJay]

It would be nice to get away from the "best player on the best team" winning it every year. Stutz has been great, but to put it in perspective, he is averaging 14.3 PPG right now, Doug hasn't been under 12 points ALL YEAR. There was a stretch where he was getting at least 20 every single night. This award is a season-long body of work, not who had the better last 5 games.

Obviously, scoring isn't everything. Other factors include rebounding (where they are basically even) head to head matchups (where neither played particularly well), etc. Obviously Stutz has been better defensively, but I just don't see how Doug doesn't win it.

[Aargh]

I just don't see how Doug doesn't win it.

Watch his defensive assignments in the WSU game. Ben Smith is 3" shorter and his career high in scoring wasn't because he was playing that much better than he normally plays. He was that much more open and unguarded than he usually is.

Take a look at the competition McD and Stutz faced OOC, which is where the biggest difference in points came from. CU's SOS was WAY behind WSU's. Including those results in a comparison isn't a fair measure.

In league play only

Points:
McD - 20.9
Stutz - 17.0

Rebounds:
Stutz - 9.1
McD - 8.1

FG %
Stutz - .604
McD - .597

FT %
Stutz - .859
McD - .817

Blocks
Stutz - 1.2
McD - Not among the leaders

Minutes played:
McD - 32.8
Stutz - Not among the leaders

So, Stutz and McD have very similar stats and McD gets his by playing about 4 minutes more per game than Stutz.

Stutz - trending up
McD - trending down

Stutz - Winner, winner chicken dinner
McD - We're # 2 - we're # 2

I'm still not saying Stutz will get it over McD. McD is the "golden boy" in the league and some voters may want to prop him up to keep the spotlight on him.

I just wanted to allow you to "see" how Stutz could possibly win it.

[CaliJay]

Those stats are all great, and I agree that if you look at conference games only they are extremely close. But do voters just overlook the first half of the season? Doug was mid-season player of the year NATIONALLY. He got Creighton and the Valley a ton of press, led us to being ranked for at least a month straight, etc. Conference games yes it is very close, non-conference it wasnt close at all. I guess voters will decide whether they want to make this a conference season award or an entire season award.

[BirdmanBB]

Those stats are all great, and I agree that if you look at conference games only they are extremely close. But do voters just overlook the first half of the season? Doug was mid-season player of the year NATIONALLY. He got Creighton and the Valley a ton of press, led us to being ranked for at least a month straight, etc. Conference games yes it is very close, non-conference it wasnt close at all. I guess voters will decide whether they want to make this a conference season award or an entire season award.

Isn't valley player of the year award supposed to be based on conference play (not non-con)?

I still see it very hard for voters to overlook Doug's non-con play, but I thought this award is simply done based on your play amongst the conference.

[Aargh]

... led us to being ranked for at least a month straight, etc.

The other side of that coin is that he then led the Jays on a 3-game skid that cost them the conference championship and dropped them out of the top 25. If anyone other than McD gets PoY, that 3-game skid is the reason.

The problem with being the "leader" is that you are held responsible for negative results as well as positive results. Voters often look at who put the team on their back, refused to lose, and led them to a championship.

I'm mentally prepared for McD to get PoY and will only be mildly disappointed if it doesn't go to Stutz. I would be disappointed if the voters gave it to a player because the team had a weak OOC schedule, which inflated a player's stats compared to other players who had a more difficult OOC schedule.