I have disagree. Harper is a stud but his team stunk. KJ was great but inconsistent in big ten play. McQueen was the best player on a team that finished second and the engine of that team...as a freshman big man
Big Ten All-Conference Awards
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M tipping over
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Have to wonder where our players would be if we had made adjustments earlier in the season and if illnesses didn’t wreak havoc for us mid-B1G play. I haven’t tried to compare Tomi to other centers ahead of him on these lists but it just feels (sight unseen) that he is a bit undervalued here.
It’s seems odd right now!
Thought this was really cool thing to do
Also gonna vehemently disagree on this…Harper missed a number of games & Bailey had some inconsistent stretches early in the year, both on a bad Rutgers team. We know how KJ’s year went. Richardson wasn’t even starting until like half way through the year or something like that? Queen was dominant from the jump and stayed dominant all year on a good Maryland team
So there's a major misunderstanding fans have when it comes to individual defensive efficiency metrics. It is important to note that unlike individual offensive metrics, individual defensive metrics DO NOT attempt to analyze a player's defensive performance when they're on the court. Instead, they analyze how the team performs defensively on the court when they are on the court vs. off it by measuring the pts per possession the team gives up on defense. More advanced ones account for the relative strength of opponent and lineup they face during each shift.
In other words, individual defensive efficiency is basically a glorified team +/- for each player and has nothing to do with how good an individual defender they actually are. For example the best defender in the world with 4 pylons as teammates will have terrible defensive efficiency numbers, whereas the worst defender in college basketball paired with 4 tremendous defenders will have great numbers.
That all said, the one thing individual defensive efficiency tells a coach is in general how their team as a whole defends when an individual player is on the court. And even that is subject to extreme randomness. Most stats nerds consider it a junk stat. I am a little higher on it than most but not by much. Hope that helps.
That is a very high quality all freshmen team.
Congrats to Will, but you could make the argument this actually led to a few losses (since starting of 1st and 2nd halves were a problem in quite a few of the losses)
The Illini would have been something else with Brice Williams.
Harper missed too many games to get this accolade, in my opinion.
McQueen is 100% legit.
Crazy that Will won 6MOTY but didn’t make All-Freshman. Who would you kick off?
foby
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NO BOSWELL!?!?!!!!
I can understand no Boswell just due to not having the numbers to back him up and a few rough defensive games (USC jumps to mind)
But Oregon getting 2 on is crazy, Bittle I can live with. Ace Baldwin got in based off of his reputation imo as well, he was constantly gambling for a steal and giving up an easy one.
Tough argument to win. Queen led all freshmen in rebounding and was 3rd in ppg. He was one of only 4 B1G players to make over 50% of his FG while taking more than 10 shots a game. (The only one who wasn't an upperclassman) You are also talking about a really big dude who makes over 75% of his FT's and was 4th in the B1G in FT attempts, which matters in winning time.
Kid is an absolute stud on a very good team.
More than likely Boswells rough defensive games were due to our coaches defensive schemes not his actual defensive ability. Not that I remember very many anyway. He was just plain robbed. Just on what he was able to do with Wolfe should have earned it alone. How many times have you see a 6'2 guy shut down a 6'11 player.
Add Flagg to that list too! and Barnhizer
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