It's seems like it was last week when we were eager for the basketball season again. Now, we are in to 2010, the regular season is at the halfway point, and the conference season is in full swing. Having said that, here's my midseason award winners.
Player of the Year-Jon Scheyer, Duke. I don't believe in the idea that the best player on the best team should win any sort of MVP awards. But in reality, Scheyer has played the best of anyone out there in the ACC to this point. Scheyer's number are pretty good: 19 points, three rebounds, and six assists per game, but the big stat is an assist to turnover ratio of 4/1. That's ridiculously good. Scheyer has reached double digits in points in 17 of 18 games, with the lone single digit effort being a nine point outing against Wake Forest. Scheyer's shooting percentages are very good as well: 43% field goals, 38% from three point range, and 89% at the free throw line.
You could make a good case for Greivis Vasquez of Maryland as well. Vasquez was my choice for player of the year in the preseason. Vasquez's numbers are still pretty solid: 18 points, four rebounds, six assists, but Scheyer has been that much better in my opinion so far.
Coach of the Year-Tony Bennett,Virginia. Remember when this was supposedly a bad hire (I'm looking at you Doug Gottlieb)? Sixteen games in, and that hire is looking pretty darn good. Currently the only undefeated team in conference play (3-0), and a 12-4 overall record, including nine straight wins, with three wins over AP top 25 teams (UAB, Georgia Tech, Miami). I know most people were concerned about the slow style of play, but Virginia has only scored above 80 points more times (three) than fewer than 60 points (twice). Seems to me those thoughts of Princeton-like games where 50 points were considered high scoring are completely unfounded.
Freshman of the Year-Derrick Favors, Georgia Tech. Favors has been about as good as advertised this season, especially on the defensive end. Favors has averaged 12 points and nine rebounds per game, along with two blocks. Favors has also been really good at getting second chances on offense for Georgia Tech. Favors has been averaging around 3.5 offensive rebounds per game. There have been games this year where Favors has just as many, if not more, offensive rebounds than defensive rebounds. Having a guy like Favors be such a beast on the offensive glass can lead to a lot of second chance points for Georgia Tech.
Biggest Surprise Team-Virginia. As I said earlier, Virginia is the only undefeated team left in conference play, and they were picked to finish 11th in the conference. It's not looking that way right now. And a big reason why is the remarkable improvement in shooting from last year to this year. Field goal shooting is up from 41% last year to 46% this year. Free throw shooting is up from 74% last year to 76% this year. But the biggest improvement is in three point shooting. The Cavs shot 31% last year, and are shooting 41% this year. The biggest individual improvements are from Sammy Zeglinski and Jeff Jones. Zeglinski shot 31% last year from three, and is shooting nearly 49% this year, while Jones shot 29% from three last year, and this year is shooting nearly 47%. The team is definitely buying in to what Tony Bennett is selling.
Biggest Disappointment-North Carolina. I think we all knew that UNC would be down a bit this year from last year's national championship team. But I don't think we expected them to be this down. UNC has seven losses, second most of any ACC team, and are sitting in 11th place in the ACC right now. Why are they not as good as last year? Simple. They're turning the ball over a lot more. UNC is turning the ball over 16 times per game, up from 12 last year. They also miss Ty Lawson. He did everything for UNC-score,rebound, pass, play defense, and didn't turn the ball over. This year, Larry Drew is scoring about half as many points per game as Lawson, but is turning the ball over more frequently than Lawson did last season (Drew is averaging 3.3 turnovers per game, Lawson averaged 1.9 last season). It also doesn't help that the shooting percentages are down across the board this season, but that's to be expected from a team that lost so much talent off of a national championship team last season. Now there's a question as to whethere UNC will even make the NCAA tournament this season.
Biggest fluke of a team-Miami. All of a sudden, that 15-0 start doesn't look that great when you combine a 1-4 conference record with a non-conference strength of schedule that was near the bottom of the entire NCAA. It's one thing to beat up on teams from the MEAC, SWAC, and Atlantic Sun conferences, but it's another to play teams on your level. And Miami is proving the point that looks can be deceiving. They lost twice to Boston College, who looks to be near the basement of the ACC, and were beaten handily by both Virginia schools. Frank Haith has some work to do get the ship steered back in the right direction. They do have some winnable games over the next couple of weeks, but if they get beat like they did against Virginia and Virginia Tech, then that 15-0 start against vastly inferior competitioin will lead them directly to the NIT.
