2014-15 Conference Honors & Awards

All-AAC

Nic Moore, Southern Methodist [jr]

Ryan Boatright, Connecticut [sr]

Will Cummings, Temple [sr]

Shaquille Harrison, Tulsa [jr]

Austin Nichols, Memphis [soph]

Player of the Year: Nic Moore, Southern Methodist

Top Defender: Austin Nichols, Memphis

Best Freshman: Daniel Hamilton, Connecticut

Coach of the Year: Larry Brown, Southern Methodist

All-ACC

Jerian Grant, Notre Dame [sr]

Terry Rozier, Louisville [soph]

Montrezl Harrell, Louisville [jr]

Rakeem Christmas, Syracuse [sr]

Jahlil Okafor, Duke [fr]

Player of the Year: Jahlil Okafor, Duke

Top Defender: Darion Atkins, Virginia

Best Freshman: Jahlil Okafor, Duke

Coach of the Year: Tony Bennett, Virginia

All-Big East

Kris Dunn, Providence [soph]

D'Angelo Harrison, St. John's [sr]

Darrun Hilliard, Villanova [sr]

LaDontae Henton, Providence [sr]

Sir'Dominic Pointer, St. John's [sr]

Player of the Year: Kris Dunn, Providence

Top Defender: Sir'Dominic Pointer, St. John's

Best Freshman: Angel Delgado, Seton Hall

Coach of the Year: Jay Wright, Villanova

All-Big Ten

Melo Trimble, Maryland [fr]

D'Angelo Russell, Ohio State [fr]

Sam Dekker, Wisconsin [jr]

Aaron White, Iowa [sr]

Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin [sr]

Player of the Year: Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin

Top Defender: A.J. Hammons, Purdue

Best Freshman: D'Angelo Russell, Ohio State

Coach of the Year: Mark Turgeon, Maryland

All-Big 12

Juwan Staten, West Virginia [sr]

Buddy Hield, Oklahoma [jr]

Georges Niang, Iowa State [jr]

Perry Ellis, Kansas [jr]

Rico Gathers, Baylor [jr]

Player of the Year: Buddy Hield, Oklahoma

Top Defender: Anthony Hickey, Oklahoma State

Best Freshman: Myles Turner, Texas

Coach of the Year: Lon Kruger, Oklahoma

All-Pac-12

T.J. McConnell, Arizona [sr]

Joseph Young, Oregon [sr]

Tyrone Wallace, California [jr]

Gary Payton, Oregon State [jr]

Delon Wright, Utah [sr]

Player of the Year: Delon Wright, Utah

Top Defender: Gary Payton, Oregon State

Best Freshman: Stanley Johnson, Arizona

Coach of the Year: Larry Krystkowiak, Utah

All-SEC

Michael Qualls, Arkansas [jr]

Bobby Portis, Arkansas [soph]

Jordan Mickey, LSU [soph]

Karl-Anthony Towns, Kentucky [fr]

Willie Cauley-Stein, Kentucky [jr]

Player of the Year: Karl-Anthony Towns, Kentucky

Top Defender: Willie Cauley-Stein, Kentucky

Best Freshman: Karl-Anthony Towns, Kentucky

Coach of the Year: John Calipari, Kentucky

Starting Five: Non-Conference Review Edition

1. Oklahoma State's Marcus Smart exploded out of the blocks but has since cooled off a bit.  He's still playing excellent basketball - putting up 12 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists per game.  In the meantime, UNLV's Anthony Bennett has caught and passed Smart in the race to be crowned the nation's best freshman.  Bennett is doing his best Larry Johnson impression in Vegas (averaging 19.2 points and 8.8 boards per contest) and is the main reason the Rebels have been able to withstand Mike Moser's recent absence due to injury.  Kansas' Ben McLemore also has passed up Smart but trails Bennett for now.

2. In the National Player of the Year race, Doug McDermott gets my vote through the first third of the season.  An argument can certainly be made for Duke's Mason Plumlee, but I would argue that the Blue Devils' big man is surrounded by far more talent than the Bluejays' forward and is asked to do less.  McDermott's numbers are impressive (23.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game), but his headiness and ability to lift his teammates' level of play have been even more important.  McDermott has been pretty flawless thus far, but there's still plenty of basketball to be played.  

3. The Defensive Player of the Year race is more of a landslide at this point, as Jeff Withey shot-blocking has the Jayhawks looking like a contender.  Withey is currently second in the country (after freshman Chris Obekpa of St. John's) at 4.9 blocks per game, but that really doesn't account for all of the shots he's altering.  Shout out to LSU's Anthony Hickey for leading the nation in steals per game.

4. At this point in the season, my All-American ballot would look like this - Trey Burke (Michigan), Isaiah Canaan (Murray State), Russ Smith (Louisville), Doug McDermott (Creighton), and Mason Plumlee (Duke).  My second team is as follows: C.J. McCollum (Lehigh), Nate Wolters (South Dakota State), Brandon Paul (Illinois), Tony Bennett, (UNLV), Jeff Withey (Kansas).  All of these guys were on my radar to start the season, but I wouldn't have believed it if you had told me before the season started that the Plumlee the Middle or Russdiculous would be in the running for All-American honors.

5. RBP's preseason Final Four was Louisville, Indiana, Syracuse, and Kentucky with the Cardinals winning a National Championship.  At this point, RBP's revised Final Four is as follows - Louisville, Indiana, Michigan, and Florida.  We're sticking with Rick Pitino's squad, though our faith had wavered a bit in Gorgui Dieng's absence and in light of Indiana's improved defense.  However, with Dieng's return and the Hoosiers' tendency to play to the level of their competition, we're sticking with our original pick at this early juncture.

Starting Five: SEC/Big East Challenge Edition

1. The SEC only managed to win 4 of 12 games last year and performed even more poorly this time around, winning only 3 games against the Big East.  At this point, calling the annual series a "challenge" is a tad misleading.  The Big East's 75% winning percentage in the most recent installment is all the more impressive considering Louisville, Connecticut, and Pittsburgh did not participate - teams that are ranked, have been ranked, or should be ranked, respectively.  New additions Missouri and Texas A&M sat this one out on the SEC side.  Only Florida, Mississippi, and LSU managed wins for the SEC.  While the Big East is not as strong this year as it has been in seasons past, the disparity in the quality of basketball played in these conferences is still substantial.  Florida, Missouri, and Kentucky are quality teams.  Tennessee, Alabama, and Arkansas are competitive and could be dancing in March.  Mississippi and Texas A&M aren't pushovers.  And LSU is interesting, because, while the Tigers are a mess on the offensive end, they play their hearts out on defense.  The bottom five teams - Auburn, Georgia, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, and Mississippi State - are awful (with the last three being basically unwatchable).  It will be interesting to see what happens to the SEC/Big East Challenge after the realignment chips fall.  While the high-profile Big East departures undoubtedly will narrow the gap between these conferences, I still think a conference featuring the Big East's non-football playing schools, its public university holdovers, and new additions like Memphis and Temple will be very competitive.

2. The LSU - Seton Hall matchup featured two of the most prolific thieves in the country.  Seton Hall junior Fuquan Edwin was second in the country in steals per game last season.  And LSU's Anthony Hickey entered last Friday night's game tied for second in the country in swipes per contest for the 2012-13 campaign.  The Tigers' sophomore point guard now leads the nation in steals after picking up 6 more against the Pirates.  (Edwin added 2 more to his own count.)  The Bayou Bengals are not exactly the most efficient on the offensive end, but they are a joy to watch on the defensive end.  Their press wreaked havoc on Seton Hall, forcing 26 turnovers.  Due to Justin Hamilton's early departure for the NBA, LSU is probably a year away from challenging for a NCAA Tourney bid.  Still, Hickey, former McDonald's All-American Johnny O'Bryant, and junior college transfer Shavon Coleman (currently averaging 17.4 and 7.6 boards per game and looking like an intriguing prospect) give new head coach Johnny Jones a nice core moving forward.

3. People are sleeping on Syracuse.  Sure, the Orange lost Kris Joseph, Dion Waiters, Scoop Jardine, and Fab Melo.  And it's also true that, despite having wins over San Diego State and now Arkansas, Syracuse is notorious for its historically cupcake-laden early season schedule (which almost never requires Jim Boeheim's team to leave New York).  So, on some level I get it.  You're skeptical.  But this is a really good team.  Former McDonald's All-American Michael Carter-Williams is a 6-6 point guard averaging 9.2 assists per contest.  Brandon Triche is a big-bodied two guard who made a number of big shots against the Razorbacks.  The Orange's frontline of C.J. Fair, Rakeem Christmas, and DaJuan Coleman is long and really causes problems for offenses in Boeheim's 2-3 zone.  And, as usual, Syracuse has depth - this year in the form of Trevor Cooney, Jerami Grant, Baye Keita, and James Southerland (who leads the Orange in scoring at 19.2 per game).  Southerland came off the bench and put 35 on Arkansas, hitting 9 of 13 from behind the arc.  The 6-8 forward has been the best sixth man in the country to this point in the season and has replaced Waiters as the Orange's offensive spark plug off the bench.

4. With Kentucky's early season growing pains and Missouri's personnel issues (senior guard and leading returning scorer Michael Dixon has left the team), Florida has been a bright spot for the SEC.  The Gators now have an 18-point win over Wisconsin and a 33-point win over Marquette.  Billy Donovan's squad is 6-0, and its smallest margin of victory came in a 13-point victory over Central Florida.  It should be noted that all 6 wins have come in Gainesville, but Florida has been impressive.  With trips to Florida State and Arizona up next, we soon will see just how good the Gators are.

5. Yes, Villanova picked up a 10-point win in Nashville over Vanderbilt.  But Jay Wright's squad has lost to Alabama by 20 on a neutral floor, against lowly Columbia by 18 in Philly, and also at LaSalle in overtime.  After seven straight NCAA Tourney trips, including a trip to the Final Four, the Wildcats finished 13-19 last year.  At the end of the season, Maalik Wayns and Dominic Cheek both decided to turn pro.  The current Villanova roster lacks the type of talent Wright has enjoyed over the course of the last decade.  For a program that seemed to be on the upswing and so popular with recruits, the current state of affairs is certainly surprising.  Wright has commented that he may have gotten away from recruiting the type of blue collar players that served as the foundation of Villanova's recent success.  Regardless of why Villanova is struggling, it's going to be a very long season in the Big East for the Wildcats.  A last place finish is not out of the question.

CBB Uniforms (1988-89 to Present): 7 Seeds

With this update, RBP moves in to the Top 25 in its ranking of the best uniforms from the 1988-89 season to the present. For more on that process, read the introduction to the original post. And now the 7 seeds:

28) UNLV (Shawn Marion): Huge fan of the silver "Rebels" on the home unis.





27) LSU (Anthony Hickey): The purple and yellow combo and the "LSU" in big, block font make the Bayou Bengals' uniform one of the NCAA's most recognizable.




26) Louisville (DeJuan Wheat):Louisville gets bonus points for being one of the first schools to feature a black alternate uniform and for being the only school to feature a cardinal bird wearing a sweater and no bottoms.




25) Georgia Tech (Kenny Anderson):Check out Lethal Weapon 3 (Kenny Anderson, Dennis Scott, and Brian Oliver) posing in their gold unis.

Notes: Big East/SEC Challenge

1. Well, I'm not sure it was much of a challenge. The Big East took 8 of 12 games to take the conference matchup in convincing fashion. Now can we put to rest the silly argument that the SEC is as good as the Big East this year? The SEC managed only 4 wins. Those wins included victories over DePaul and Rutgers, the two teams RBP picked to finish 15th and 16th in the Big East, and a Kentucky victory over a St. John's team that returned 4% of its scoring from last season. Mississippi State's win over West Virginia was the SEC's only victory over a Big East team RBP projected to finish in the top-half of the conference, and we only picked the Mountaineers to finish 8th. Four Big East schools did not participate - Marquette, Villanova, Notre Dame, and South Florida. Marquette is undefeated and just topped rival Wisconsin over the weekend. Villanova would be no worse than the sixth best team in the SEC, and Notre Dame is a competitive team despite the loss of Tim Abromaitis to a season-ending knee injury. For its part, the Big East picked up some nice wins, highlighted by unranked Georgetown beating 12th ranked Alabama in Tuscaloosa. In matchups featuring two ranked teams, the Big East was 2-0, as #3 Syracuse topped #9 Florida and #6 Louisville slipped by #19 Vanderbilt in overtime.

2. I'm surprised Ole Miss isn't better. RBP projected the Rebels to finish sixth in the SEC. However, they only managed two-point wins against DePaul (on Thursday) and Penn State (on Sunday), two of the worst BCS conference schools. While Andy Kennedy's squad sits at 7-1, the Rebels only quality win is against Miami, and they lost by 30 on a neutral court to Marquette.

3. LSU is a talented wing away from being very solid for the next couple years. 6-11 260-pound junior Justin Hamilton, a transfer from Iowa State, and 6-9 250-pound freshman Johnny O'Bryant, a McDonald's All-American, provide Trent Johnson with a talented (and enormous) frontline. The key going forward, however, may be freshman point guard Anthony Hickey. Hickey, who somehow flew under the radar on the recruiting circuit, won Kentucky's Mr. Basketball over Louisville freshman and McDonald's All-American Chane Behanan and led his Christian County squad to a state championship in the process. Waterbug-quick and a ballhawk on the defensive end, he leads the Tigers in minutes, assists, and steals and is second in scoring. Hickey struggled early against Rutgers on Saturday but made two crucial baskets in crunch time to put the game away for the Bayou Bengals.

4. Despite losing to ridiculously deep Syracuse, I like this Florida team. The Gators have an excellent backcourt, and I couldn't be much higher on Bradley Beal. I think he's a special player with shades of Eric Gordon to his game. Patric Young is a beast in the paint, but he's going to need some help. Will Yeguete will contribute, but the Gators will need Erik Murphy to step up after he returns from a knee injury if the Gators are going to make a deep run in March.

5. Seton Hall senior Herb Pope may finally be living up to his vast potential. The 6-8 235-pound senior forward spent his freshman year at New Mexico State. He chose the Aggies, despite being a highly sought after top 25 recruit. Prior to suiting up for the Aggies, Pope was shot in the arm at a party. He managed to put together a solid freshman campaign but transferred to Seton Hall after one season in Las Cruces. Then, in April 2010, Pope went into cardiac arrest caused by a genetic anomaly in his heart. After undergoing surgery to correct the condition, Pope returned to the floor last season but lacked the stamina necessary to play effectively for a full 40 minutes. Now fully recovered, Pope is averaging 20 points and 11 rebounds per game. In Seton Hall's 22-point shellacking of Auburn, Pope poured in 23 points, grabbed 12 boards, and blocked 3 shots. If he continues at this pace, the Pirates' inside-outside combo of Pope and senior point guard Jordan Theodore may surprise some teams in Big East play.

6. Louisville continues to find ways to win, despite a rash of injuries to key contributors. The Cardinals are without freshman McDonald's All-American Wayne Blackshear, junior Mike Marra, and junior Rakeem Buckles (who is expected to return in the short-term). A host of other Cardinals have missed time with an assortment of injuries but have since returned to action. The Cards' play on the offensive end against Vanderbilt wasn't pretty, but they managed to eke out a win in overtime. While Louisville is 7-0 and currently has the third best defense in the country (according to Ken Pomeroy's data), the Cardinals are struggling to score in the half-court. Vandy's length made Louisville's typically average offense look ineffective for long stretches. There is a good chance Rick Pitino's team will be ranked 4th when the newest rankings come out. However, with a date against Kentucky and conference play looming, the Cards are going to have to find ways to score in the half-court against long, athletic opponents, or their lofty perch in the rankings will be short-lived.