THEY BETTER GET IT RIGHT THIS TIME

For the most part, the people who choose the college basketball player of the year are a pretty incompetent bunch. I’m not sure what their criteria is, but it seems to change from year to year. Some years, they obviously give it to the best player on the best team. Other years, they seem to give it to the best player at the biggest program. There have also been those years that they chose to reward the best non-freshman in the nation. Then there are the years that they give it to the person who actually deserves it. This year, they better do just that and give it to Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin. Not only should he win the award, but the voting should be unanimous. Although the choice seems obvious to those who believe what their eyes see, you can never count on the voters for college sports awards to make the obvious choice. Some years, they get it right and some years they miss worse than Shaq when shooting free throws.

Last season, they simply gave it to the best player on what was allegedly the best team. Don’t get me wrong, I think that Tyler Hansbrough is a fine college basketball player and has had a great career at North Carolina. But can anyone look me in my eyes with a straight-face and tell me that he was better than Michael Beasley or Derrick Rose last season….. I didn’t think so. Michael Beasley averaged 26 points and 12 rebounds a game in his only college basketball regular season. Yes, these numbers are great, but what makes them even better is the fact that he played for KANSAS STATE! That’s right, I said Kansas State. That’s not exactly what I call a powerhouse program. This is a school that basically didn’t exist in the world of college basketball before his arrival, and it has fallen off of the map after his departure. He was basically Beyonce while the rest of his teammates were Destiny’s Child, or he was Nelly and he played with the St. Lunatics. Perhaps the best way to put it is to say that he was Michael Jackson, and he was on the court with four Tito’s. He and he alone led that team to a 21 – 12 record and the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Hansbrough on the other hand, averaged 23 points and 10 rebounds per game on a team that was absolutely loaded. Beasley faced double and triple teams all season because no one feared any of his teammates, but defenses had to honor the rest of the Tar Heels and be careful not to focus too much on Hansbrough. Simply put, Beasley did much more with much less than Hansbrough, and he should have been player of the year. Due to the fact that I have written several blog entries about Derrick Rose in the past and my readers know how I feel about his game, there is really no reason to discuss him any further.

The 2003 player of the year award also baffled me. T.J. Ford was the winner. Much like Hansbrough he was also a very good college basketball player, but 2003 was also Carmelo Anthony’s freshman year at Syracuse. Need I say more? So if you thought that T.J. Ford was a better college basketball player than Carmelo Anthony, please let me know. The argument that I heard most that year was that a freshman couldn’t win the award. That was simply a cop-out because Kevin Durant won it 2007 and he was basically the second coming of Carmelo Anthony, without the National Championship.

Although Griffin and Oklahoma fell one game short of the Final Four, the fact remains that he was hands down the best player in college basketball this year. He averaged 23 points and 14 rebounds this season, and has simply been dominant this season. Not only has he been great this year, but he should be the first pick of the NBA draft (which means that he stands to make a lot of STRAIGHT CASH HOMEY!!!!), and trust me he will not be a bust. He is definitely not the second coming of Kwame Brown.

BLAKE GRIFFIN IS THE COLLEGE BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR, AND THE VOTER’S BETTER GET IT RIGHT THIS TIME!!!!

AND NOW FOR MY BALLER & SCRUB OF THE WEEK!

BALLER: John Calipari (The next Head Coach of my Kentucky Wildcats) - This may be wishful thinking and a bit pre-mature, but I really hope that he is the next Head Coach of MY WILDCATS! Note to Calipari: This honor will be null and void if you do not become the Wildcats next coach.

SCRUB: Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers) - As you all know, I HATE KOBE BRYANT! (read the blog entry "I HATE KOBE BRYANT" to find out why). But he is my Scrub of the Week because he is allegedly the best player in the league, yet he could hardly shake Mario West in Sunday's loss to Atlanta. The Hawks held him to just 17 points in Sunday's game, and the undrafted Mario West defended him about as good as anyone ever has (I only saw Bryant shake him once). I take special joy in honoring him as the SCRUB OF THE WEEK!!!!