MWC award

[Blueintheface]

Isnt that what I just said? Best player on best team.

The head to head had to play a part. End result, they win the conference (while Hobson plays an oustanding game) and Fredette struggles while apparently sick, team loses at home. End of story.

[woot]

The only issue I have with any of the picks is the DPOY. Foster is a stiff. He is 5th in the nation in blocks, sure, but Emery is 5th in the nation in steals, and also does something, anything, other than that main stat. He also spends most of each game on the floor rather than the bench.

[cougjunkie]

Did all-world Henderson make any of the teams? Also how does the defensive player of the year not even make 3rd team all-conference?

[Blueintheface]

Did all-world Henderson make any of the teams?

Quite an indictment of the team's leading scorer in conference play, don't you think? Would he have started for Snow?

[Jarid in Cedar]

Leonard of SDSU is freshman of the year.

All conference team is Fredette, Gary and Hobson from UNM, Leonard from SDSU and Willis from UNLV.

Second team is Emergy, Ogide from CSU, Martinez from UNM, Thomas from SDSU and Moss from TCU.

Third team is Haws and JT, Stanback from UNLV, Brown from Utah and Jackson from Wyoming.

Defensive team is Emerty, Gary, Stanback, Wills, and Foster.

How in the hell did Brown make ANY all conference team?

[jay santos]

I think Jimmer's the best player in the conference, and I think BYU's the best team in the conference. But I can't argue with Hobson as POY (can't we just consolidate on MVP for every league every sport??). Hobson was 2-0 against Jimmer and won the conference championship.

[TheBYUGuy]

The basketball awards in this conference, like the football awards, have no apparent criteria. All of you who are saying that Hobson deserved it because he was the best player on the best team must not remember when Ruben Douglas won the award on the 6th place LOOBS (2003 I think).

More than anything, this is just more evidence of the inexplicable phenomenon that New Mexico consistently dominates the MWC awards, no matter how well their teams fare.

[TheBYUGuy]

Also, if the POY award should suddenly go to the best player on the best team, wouldn't it also make sense that the DPOY should go to someone on the best defensive team?

[jay santos]

The basketball awards in this conference, like the football awards, have no apparent criteria. All of you who are saying that Hobson deserved it because he was the best player on the best team must not remember when Ruben Douglas won the award on the 6th place LOOBS (2003 I think).

More than anything, this is just more evidence of the inexplicable phenomenon that New Mexico consistently dominates the MWC awards, no matter how well their teams fare.

Basketball's a team game, and where you rank in the standings is critical. The year Douglas won (I'm thinking he won co-player with Hansen that year, right?), he shouldn't have. I think it's possible you give the POY to a 2nd or 3rd place team, but the rest of the resume would have to be significantly better. In this case it wasn't.

[BoylenOver]

Isnt that what I just said? Best player on best team.

Hobson deserved the award. I could tell you that UNM's record/finish had no bearing on why he won POY, but UNM is a top-ten team and MWC champs because of Hobson's contributions.

[TheBYUGuy]

Basketball's a team game, and where you rank in the standings is critical. The year Douglas won (I'm thinking he won co-player with Hansen that year, right?), he shouldn't have. I think it's possible you give the POY to a 2nd or 3rd place team, but the rest of the resume would have to be significantly better. In this case it wasn't.

I was wrong. UNM finished 7th that year, not 6th. And the award went solely to Douglas. At that point I figured that the MWC called it the POY award rather than the MVP so they could give it to whomever they wanted (MVP somehow implies that it should go to someone on the best team, while POY implies that it should go to the best player, regardless of team). At the time, I had no hard feelings toward Douglas. He really was the best player in the conference, despite being on a crappy team.

There have been other times when the POY has been from non-champions. In 2007, Lee Cummard shared the award with J.R. Giddens of (you guessed it) New Mexico, who finished in 3rd place. In 2002, Britton Johnsen won the POY even though Wyoming won the conference.

The MWC voters have clearly set a precedent that you don't need to be on the conference champion to win a POY award. This goes for both football and basketball.

Hobson is a nice player, but he wasn't better than Jimmer this year. If he were the best player, I would imagine he would have won the Player of the Week award more than 1.5 times (Jimmer won it 5 times by comparison). I will grant that Hobson was better than sick Jimmer. Maybe that is how the voters justified it.