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- Posted on: Wed, 04/06/2011 - 9:54am #27740
cp33Participanthttp://www.slamonline.com/online/college-hs/college/2011/04/kembas-been-snubbed/
by Quinn Peterson / @QwinFNP
Kemba Walker‘s heroics have been on full display all season long, especially the past four weeks, clear for the entire country to see. But as I watched the National Championship on Monday, a DMX-ish voice screamed between my ears: What’s. Really. Good?!
Kemba got snubbed this year, straight up. And it’s so obvious that if not careful, one could be duped into thinking otherwise. As awesome a year as Kemba had, and you’re telling me he wasn’t the best player in the country — or the conference? In the words of Ed Lover, c’mon son!
Now, to be sure, Jimmer Fredette had an outstanding season. I’m not taking anything away from him, but far too much was taken from Walker. No one — read no one — was consistently as good, as clutch, as heroic as Kemba from November to April, beginning to end. Not when it mattered most.
A potential POY should also have a vast impact on his team, right? Make their teammates better? Well, it was Kemba, Charles Okwandu and sixunderclassmen playing significant minutes (with Alex Oriachi as the only five-star recruit). That’s more than any other (good) team in the country. There’s no question that Kemba’s confidence and swagger rubbed off on his younger running mates. They took his cue and followed his lead. He put them on his back. He was the best leader in the country — hands down.
On the biggest stages, he stepped up every single time. Eleven 30-point games is a nice stat in itself, but more telling are his five game-deciding shots that came with less than a minute left. Baskets under two minutes are even more numerous. Even in games where he struggled from the field, he never hesitated to take the pressure off of his teammates and take the big shot himself.
Jimmer was great, but who it came against and under what circumstances means something. BYU played eight Tournament-bound teams during the course of the regular season and conference tournament. Three-fourths of UConn’s schedule came against Tournament-bound teams. Obviously, they play in the Big East, but that’s the point: It’s the Big East! Save that overrated talk for Charles Barkely. The Jimmer had some great numbers and outings, but they were empty compared to Kemba.
Not sold? How about this: UConn started the season unranked and picked to finish 10th in the Big East (granted, they did only finish ninth). And Walker wasn’t on any pre-season All-American list. Seldom do we see one player grow so much from one year to the next in every aspect of his game, including the intangibles. In his first two years he was, many times, out of control with little consistency on his jumper. Here in ’10-11, he was always calm, always poised, dropping jumpers and floaters at 43 percent clip.
He shocked the world and won the Maui, then came back and did it twice more in far more significant situations. In Hawaii, many swore it was just a passing phase, that he would come back to life once he touched back down in the continental US — negative.
Five games in five days (and a record 130 points) to win the Big East tourney. No way he could keep it up through the Tournament. Nope, did that, too.
While it could sometimes be misleading to associate a team’s success directly with one player, in this case, it’s justified, because quite simply, it’s true. Every UConn win was a Kemba win. He didn’t just score, he filled up the stat sheet: 23.5 points per, 5.4 boards (at 6-1! He had 9 in the title game, by the way) and 4.5 assists, all while logging nearly 38 minutes a night. Opportunities created for his teammates simply by being on the floor are immeasurable.
Yet as clear as his greatness has been, the slights have been equally as vivid.
If POY was up for debate then Big East POY had to be a shoo-in, right? Think again. Ben Hansbrough gets it. Based on their regular seasons, this could be somewhat warranted. But I’d argue (strongly) that the Big East and NCAA Tournaments — and UConn and Notre Dame’s respective finishes — showed us who the best player in the Big East really was: the Huskies’ Bronx Bomber.
And to truly illuminate the injustices is this: He wasn’t a unanimous All-Big East selection. Now that should leave you more appalled than Kanye. Ridiculous.
All this has caused the usually suppressed conspiracy theorist within me to emerge, because, check this, Calhoun has been snubbed like crazy, too. Leading a team that was, again, unranked to start the season, to a national championship, and he’s not the coach of the year? OK. who does he lose out to? Mike Brey, Notre Dame. Wow.
Politics and BS has to be at play here. Some kind of backlash for this NCAA allegation business Calhoun has been under scrutiny for.
To try to make due, the powers that be slid Walker the Bob Cousy award, which goes to the best point guard in the nation. Kemba didn’t even run the point this year, to be honest, not when he was at his best. He played off the ball and freshman Shabazz Napier handled PG duties.
Forget about that for a second. Jimmer was nominated for this award, too. So Kemba wins the award for best point guard in the nation over the guy who beats him out for Player of the Year? Something just doesn’t add up.
How many game-winning step-backs does a guy have to make?
Cutting the nets down, then, was his way of getting the last word, his final note before dropping the mic and walking off the stage, audience speechless as to what they just witnessed.
0 - Posted on: Wed, 04/06/2011 - 10:22am #518733
TallmanNYCParticipantIt was the year of the Jimmer. Sure Kemba is a better player, but that isn’t the only thing the award is about. The NBA GMs are going to tell you 5 to 10 guys who they think are better than Kemba come draft day. You want the best player to win? Well you can wait to see who the number one draft NBA choice is. It won’t be Kemba. You want the guy who dominated college hoops for the entire year, then it was Jimmer. Whose year was it? Who did we all talk about all year? It was Jimmer’s year. Kemba was great and it could have gone either way, but you can’t say Kemba was robbed loosing to the Jimmer.
And Kemba didn’t have great games during the last three rounds of the NCAA (final game: 5 for 19 and 0 assists). Big East he was awesome. But come NCAA time we found out that beating Big East teams really isn’t quite as special as some folks thought.
Now the Big East Player of the year award. Maybe a different story.
0 - Posted on: Wed, 04/06/2011 - 11:35am #518755
Mr. 19134ParticipantIt was the year of the Jimmer huh?……Well who walked off the court last with the trophy Jimmer or Kemba? Where was Jimmer during the entire Final Four? Kemba started the year off outshining Jimmer while breaking records in Maui and closed it out winning his last 9 games breaking the Big East tourney record and winning the MOP of the Final 4. What did Jimmer do again?
Did the NCAA really find out that beating Big East teams isn’t special because I’m pretty sure at the end of the tournament a Big East team won. That means nobody beat the Big East team. That makes them special. But that Big East team was the one who finished 9th in the conference meaning that any Big East team that makes the tourney is good enough to win it all.
I’m willing to bet that if Ben Hansborough and Jimmer Fredette switched roles on teams and conferences that Jimmer doesn’t lead the nation in scoring and puts up around 21 PPG in the Big East 2nd to Kemba and Marshon Brooks.
I agree with this articles wholeheardtly. I had Kemba on my preseason list for NPOY because of the way he ended last season. I saw this season coming. But not the sheer amount of success he had coming. No way should Psycho B of won the Big East player of the year over Kemba either.
0 - Posted on: Wed, 04/06/2011 - 12:09pm #518771
Mario88ParticipantClearly race plays a factor in this.Kemba has been doin his thing since Maui, how many game winners has he hit? National Championship Big East Championship. Jimmer played in a sorry conference, and he had alot of experience on his team. U put kemba in the Mountain west Conference on any team and he’ll average 30,6,8 easy. But hey hopefully he’ll win the wooden award.
0 - Posted on: Wed, 04/06/2011 - 12:18pm #518779
B EazyParticipantIf we’re talking tournament here buddies…how many teams did the MWC have in the Sweet 16? How many did the Little East (as Chuck puts it) have????
2
Suck it
0 - Posted on: Wed, 04/06/2011 - 12:22pm #518783
B-ball fanParticipantI think both would have been deserving picks. You could argue that Kemba is a superior player, but it is tough to say that anyone in college basketball was more important to their team than Jimmer, who was even more efficient than Kemba despite having a far inferior supporting cast. I think that Jimmer deserved it simply for carrying his team so far. Of course, UConn wouldn’t have made the tournament without Kemba, probably. But Jimmer was a one man show in a way no college player in recent memory has been.
@Mario88: So you think that Kemba could have averaged 30 ppg in Jimmer’s place. That is a nice little prediction, but Kemba shot 43% from the field scoring 23.5 ppg while playing with athletic non post-scoring bigs. Yes, he played in a much, much tougher conference, but I doubt his numbers would shoot up that much in the mountain west, especially with inferior team mates.
I don’t mean to sound down on Kemba. I think he will get his revenge, if you want to call it that, and end up a superior NBA player than Jimmer. But Jimmer was deserving of the Naismith.
0 - Posted on: Wed, 04/06/2011 - 12:54pm #518796
NJHooper95ParticipantKemba definitely deserved player of the year nationally and in conference. How can anyone say Jimmer was more important to his team when Kemba played in a lineup that started three freshma?. I know many of you just started paying attention to Uconn, but Jeremy Lamb for most of the season was not the Jeremy Lamb you all saw in the Tournament. Neither was Napier or Roscoe Smith. Kemba carried these young guys almost the entire season until they started believing the could play. Nobody was more important to their TEAM THAN KEMBA WALKER.
0 - Posted on: Wed, 04/06/2011 - 1:20pm #518800
FastAndFuriousParticipantI agree
There’s no way Jimmer was more important to his than Kemba, for god sakes he took an unaranked team and they went undefeated in each tourney.
And I actually do think if Kemba played in the MWC he woulda averaged more look wat he did to each mid major team he played this year:
Against Mid-Major teams this year he averaged 26.7 PPG 5.2 APG 6.2 RPG
He played against 11 Mid Major Teams
So I do think his numbers would have been higher if he played in the lower MWC
And not to mention he "DESTROYED" the best team in the conference SDSU for 36 4 and 3
So what do you think he would have done to Air Force, Wyoming, TCU???
Yea.
0 - Posted on: Wed, 04/06/2011 - 3:35pm #518862
eric palmerParticipantFreddette’s line, in three games against SDSU wasn’t too shabby either- 32.7/4.3/3.7 and against teams from either the 6 BCS confrences and teams that made it to the Dance, Jimmer had a line of 31.6/3.8/4.5.
Also, while Kemba was easily the most important player on his team, I’m not sure if I would say his talents really meant as much to his team. UCONN has some guys really surprise towards the end of the year and really stepped up their game to support Kemba-guys like Lamb, who has vaulted into potential top 10 status for the 2012 draft, Oriaki, Napier, and possibly Roscoe Smith-all of whom might all play in the league one day. Yes, UCONN was unranked and picked to finish in the bottom half of the Big East this year, but won the championship largely in part because of Walker’s unreal play, but without those role players stepping up like they did-when so little was expected of them [the role players]-is just as big a reason they cut down the nets.
Jimmer, on the other hand, was stuck playing with a list of players who would struggle to make it on a team in one of the mid-level overseas teams, and still led his team to the Sweet 16.
Talent-wise, Kemba has Jimmer beat, but I don’t think I’d go as far as saying Kemba was robbed of the POY trophy because the Jimmer had a very special season. Big Easy POY award though…yeah..Kemba was robbed.
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