Mid-Season Awards

[uniftw]

These aren't bad, but it looks like Buss will qualify for 6th man of the year, I have to think he wins that. Other than that these look pretty good.

You are correct! When I last looked at this, he appeared to be the starter going forward. Now post injury, I believe he will be eligible. Buss and Smith will be close for 6th man. If Mvouika qualifies (can start one more game I believe) then Wiggins gets bumped.

They are neck and neck and it may come down to that Buss missed some games and K. Smih has not.

I think Nate is a front runner in MIP too...

untitled.JPG (23.12 KiB) Viewed 1254 times

To compare here are Smith's stats

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[uniftw]

Buss shoots 7% points higher from the field, 11 percentage points better from the line and gets there more, 9 percentage points better from 3 while shooting more, half a board more, 19 LESS tunovers...all while playing 5 LESS minutes per game and having his PG averages hurt greatly by injuring his knee 2 minutes into a game he already had 5 points in.

The only thing Smith has over him is .4 PPG and .7 APG which isn't shocking since Buss is playing the 4

[Wufan]

Mitch Holthus just said the following during the Drake/UNI game (paraphrasing), "I'm not sure who win the Larry Bird trophy, but first, second, and third all play for the same team."

[PantherSigEp]

Mitch Holthus just said the following during the Drake/UNI game (paraphrasing), "I'm not sure who win the Larry Bird trophy, but first, second, and third all play for the same team."

Honestly who is being considered besides Early or Van Vleet. That's the Best Forward v. the Best Guard IMO. People could make cases for Baker, Ballentine and others but that's only happening so that we don't put just two pictures up on the screen.

[rlh04d]

Mitch Holthus just said the following during the Drake/UNI game (paraphrasing), "I'm not sure who win the Larry Bird trophy, but first, second, and third all play for the same team."

Honestly who is being considered besides Early or Van Vleet. That's the Best Forward v. the Best Guard IMO. People could make cases for Baker, Ballentine and others but that's only happening so that we don't put just two pictures up on the screen.

Personally, I think Ron Baker is the best player on WSU's team. I don't think he'll win the Larry Bird trophy by any means, though, mainly because he's been slowed down with his ankle injury for the entire conference schedule. @Evansville was the first time he's looked truly healthy since the ORU game, and also the first time he's broken 20 points. Also probably why he has three dunks in the last two games, after not having one since before the injury.

I think it's a good thing that SIU's Beane only woke up well into the conference season, because he could have made it a fight.

It should come down simply to FVV or Early, though.

[wsushox1]

Cleanthony should, and will, win the award.

He's bailed WSU out too many times this year already with his offense. Say what you want about FVV and Baker, both stud players and likely future winners of the award, but until Ron's performance against Evansville Early was the best player on WSU for about 7 straight games.

[saluki762]

Has Beane played himself into consideration for 2nd team or honorable mention?

[Wufan]

Has Beane played himself into consideration for 2nd team or honorable mention?

HM at least IMO. He's averaging 16.0 ppg in conference, versus 14.1 in all games. Additionally, his statistical boost seems to have coincided with an increase in wins. Over his last 7 games he is averaging ~ 24 points per and SIU is 5-2 with only losses @ Wichita and @ Terra Haute. Unfortunately for Beane and SIU, there is a group of about 8 players that are deserving of first team honors and another 8 that are deserving of second team honors, so it is unclear where on that list he will end up. Additionally, Jackson will lose some of the prestige (and possibly split ballots with Beane) resulting in the likelihood of him being downgraded from possible first team to second team.

[rlh04d]

Has Beane played himself into consideration for 2nd team or honorable mention?

Let's see how SIU finishes the season.

Win two out of the last three and I think Beane has an argument as to being one of the five most valuable players to his team in the conference.