Triumphant Awards

So I thought I would post some of my awards for the ACC. It's tough to leave some people off, but here goes.

ACC 1st Team
-Tyler Hansbrough
-Ty Lawson
-Gerald Henderson
-Jack McClinton
-Toney Douglas

ACC 2nd Team
-Tyrese Rice
-Trevor Booker
-Kyle Singler
-Wayne Ellington
-Jeff Teague

ACC 3rd Team
-Danny Green
-Gani Lewal
-Greivis Vasquez
-James Johnson
-Malcolm Delaney

*If I went with a traditional C, PF, SF, SG, PG lineup, I would have moved Booker in and probably pumped Toney Douglas down, but then that would throw everything off. These are open to debate, but this is just my opinion.

All Freshman Team

Al-Farouq Aminu, Wake Forest
Sylven Landesberg, Virginia
Solomon Alabi, Florida State
Ed Davis, North Carolina
Iman Shumpert, Georgia Tech

*Not a lot of huge names as far as freshman, but if they stick around, I'm sure they will become more familiar. Especially that Ed Davis guy.

As for the big stuff:

Player of the Year: Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson
Rookie of the Year: Al-Farouq Aminu
Coach of the Year: Dino Gaudio and Leonard Hamilton
Defensive Player of the Year: Trevor Booker

*Yes, I gave Player of the Year to 2 guys on the same team. My feeling is that Ty Lawson will win this award. He had has a great year, probably a masterful year, but Tyler Hansbrough is being measured by last year's success and that is unfair to him. His scoring and rebounding are down, but that's because his teammates have all gotten better in other areas. And it's not like Hansbrough has just laid back this year. He still takes charges, he improved his outside shot, free throw shooting, and 3 point shooting. I can make a case for either one of these. ROY is a given. I gave COY to two coaches because Dino has made Wake competitive again, especially after Skip's passing. As far as Leonard Hamilton, name 3 players from Florida State. Exactly. Booker has been solid and is active on the blocks, boards, and steals.

*I will be blogging about the Duke/UNC game later.

NPOY

Ever go to Sportsline.com? I usually don't like their articles and I don't particularly like this one. It seems to me that sportsline doesn't have anything else to do, but they have to meet a deadline, so they print some very poorly-thought out article and this seems to be the case here. Read it and here are my thoughts:

If you read some of the comments on this article, you would see that some people are using the race arguement. I'm not even going to touch that because there are more important issues for me to comment on.

The first is the age difference. Blake Griffin is a sophomore. Tyler Hansbrough is a senior. Sure, Hansbrough can be considered the media's darling, but did he ever ask for all this attention. I bet he loathes it. Also, when Hansbrough receieved all this attention for his work ethic and drive, it was his junior year when North Carolina was in the middle of a title run. Now sure, OK looks like a contender, but I'm not expecting them to win the title. Elite 8 is a possiblility, even Final 4, but not a title. Griffin is a sophomore and when you think of elite teams in college basketball, Oklahoma is not on the list (Write that down!). My feelings are that Tyler Hansbrough had over 2 years to be exposed to him and Griffin only has had over 1 year.

Also, let us look at the conferences in which each player plays in. Blake is in the Big 12. What's the first thing that comes to your mind? Football, right? Tyler is in the ACC. First thing to come to your mind? Basketball? Me too.

My point is that Hansbrough will get more media attention because he plays in the ACC, for one of the most decorating schools in college basketball, and will most likely go down as one of the top college players of all time. I am not discrediting Blake Griffin at all. If the season were to end today, I would declare him the Player of the Year. He's good, but let's not pull the whole race card out or say that it is because people love #50. He plays in a basketball conference for the most popular team in the land and has been in the spotlight since he scored his first bucket more than 4 years ago. Blake will most likely be a top pick in the draft, plays in a football conference, and has been on a college campus for almost 2 years. The difference is in those statements, not race.

Let's admire these players for who they are, what they've accomplished and the type of players they will be. I support Tyler Hansbrough and consider him one of the best players in the country and this article made me want to support him even more.

Oh, one more thing. Seriously Sportsline, get some good writers who you can actually pay to write something intelligent. Golly!