Just as I did the past few months, I am going to ask the tough question. Who should be crowned College Basketball Player of the Year? A few of the big preseason names have fallen off in the past few months. Therefore, the race is basically down to two people: Anthony Davis (See team preview here) and Thomas Robinson (See team preview here). Head to head, this pick is going to be a tough one. In fact, some ballots will be conducted next week on this subject, but we still won’t find out for a while. Here are some stats for ya:
Anthony Davis Freshman Kentucky Wildcats Team Rank: 1/1
PPG: 14.3 SPG: 1.5 FG%: .658
APG: 0.9 BPG: 4.8 FT%: .717
RPG: 9.8 TPG: 0.9 MPG: 31.4
Thomas Robinson Junior Kansas Jayhawks Team Rank: 3/4
PPG: 17.8 SPG: 1.1 FG%: .531
APG: 1.8 BPG: 1.1 FT%: .695
RPG: 11.8 TPG: 2.7 MPG: 31.4
They average the same exact minutes per game and their stats are very close. Even in the ballots conducted every week, they are within 3 points of each other (Davis is ahead). I feel like Anthony Davis has a better team around him but at the same time, that should make it even tougher to put up numbers like he has since they have more than one or two stars on their team. What do you guys think?
Boston Sports Blog 
I think its gotta be Davis. The thing is that he’s not usually the first option for Kentucky, yet he’s still putting up over 14 a game. But the big thing about Davis is his defense. He is the biggest game changer I’ve seen defensively, more so than anyone on the Uconn teams in the past decade. He averages about 5 blocks but the amount of shots he changes can’t be totaled. I love Robinson don’t get me wrong but its gotta be Davis.
I think you need to take into account the fact that Robinson has taken a team in a “down” year for Kansas and with the help of Tyshawn Taylor managed to win an eighth straight conference championship without the star quality that Anthony Davis has surrounding him. The greatest of players bring their teammates up a level, unfortunately for Davis there isn’t a level up for his fellow starting five and his team should be expected to be exactly where they are now. Robinson on the other hand deserves a little extra credit.
I completely agree with you, they weren’t supposed to be the team that they are now
Now I do understand the argument that “Kentucky has higher caliber of players competing with Davis”. Ya he has other players putting up numbers so it makes his numbers even more proactive. But think about that for a second…competing?! Give T-Rob some help down low and those triple teams necessarily go away leaving him to dominate. I’m not arguing that T-Rob deserves the POY. I’ve only seen Kentucky playing in Top 5 matchups (2 I believe) so haven’t had a great opportunity to see Davis play. All the same, I think the main argument for Davis’ lack of points being attributed to wildcats spreading the opponents defense is lacking. Both are beasts. Both deserve POY awards.
Side note: I’d like to see what Kentucky could do with Danny Manning on their coaching team. The progression of KU big men from Freshman to Senior is incredible.
POY is the best player in college basketball this year.
POY is not an MVP vote.
If you want an unbiased POY vote, ask NBA scouts and GMs.
The media? biased (see Bob Knight).
The fans and coaches? biased by nature.
According to the NBA, Anthony Davis is POY and it’s not even close.
If by that logic why wasn’t Kyrie Irving POY last year? Or John Wall the year before that? Tard….this is NCAA basketball not NBA!
After last nights performance Tyler Zeller POY even though many pts. came from free-throws a point is a point. Freshman POY Austin Rivers.
Austin rivers over anthony davis??
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