NCAA Gets Jimmered One More Time

Already named to the AP All American team, Jimmer Fredette was today named the Player of the Year in college basketball.  There is little doubt that his scoring ability and one name celebrity status earned him the title.  And since it is a regular season award I agree with the award.  The talk was always Kemba Walker or Jimmer Fredette.  Walker was a little down in the middle of the season, but if you included the playoffs into equation, I think my vote would change to Walker.  He's been dynamite and totally clutch in the Big East and NCAA Tournaments.

Who do you think deserved the POY award?  The 4 nominees were Jimmer, Walker, Nolan Smith (Duke) and Jared Sullinger (Ohio State).  Jimmer pretty much ran away with it, earning 48 of the 65 voted.  Walker was in 2nd with 11 voted, Smith had 5, and Sullinger had 1.

Just to remind you how good Jimmer is, let me remind you of his 52 point outburst against UNLV in the MWC Tournament.

Oh yeah, Kemba Walker isn't too bad himself. (I recommend you mute the video when the music starts)

March Madness: BYU's Shot at the Final 4

So, I think it's really interesting to see the nation's view of BYU.  Earlier in the year, ESPN polled the country about the player of the year race.  And about 70% of the nation believed Jimmer deserved the Player of the Year award.

Now the poll is a little more team oriented.  ESPN wants to know who you think will win the Southeast Region (BYU's region) and go to the final 4.  Almost 93,000 people have voted, and right now the Nation believes that BYU will advance.  They hold a slight edge over Florida at the moment.  I find it very interesting to see that the Nation has so much faith in the Cougars.  So how good are their chances really?

To compete in the tournament, every team needs one star player that can lead them throughout the game, and that can be the go to guy at the end of the game.  BYU has both of those in Jimmer.  Outside shooting is also a huge key in the college game.  You have to be able to hit 3's.  BYU has certainly no problem with that.  Jimmer can hit 3's all day, and if Jackson Emery is on, then  there's another deep threat.  What BYU can't afford is for Abouo to spend the majority of the game on the bench in foul trouble.  Hartsock is playing well, but BYU needs more than just him inside.  Rebounding is going to become the issue for BYU.  They can't allow these teams that are getting better and better to get offensive rebounds and second chance points.


But all in all I like their chances.  In all honesty how good of a chance to all you BYU fans give the Cougars of making the Final Four?

Daily Highlight: Jimmer Breaks all Kinds of Records

So I was able to finally find a non NBA highlight on youtube (Thank you Mtn Network).  Let's break down what Jimmer achieved last night.  He got his team to the MWC Tournament final by scoring 52, which is a personal record, a Mountain West Conference Tournament single game record, and a BYU single game record.  He also became BYU's all time leading scorer.  Not a bad night.  Take a look.

BYU's New Tourney Chances

BYU has certainly been getting lots of press time this season.  It all started with Jimmer leading his team to a top 3 ranking in the NCAA Basketball standings.  The press time then went from positive to negative as Brandon Davies got dismissed for an Honor Code violation.  But it has been interesting to see how the analysts and experts have responding.  It has been a nearly unanimous approval of BYU's decision to uphold its standards.  They all realize it's difficult and asking a lot, but everyone has appreciated how they've chosen principles over sports.

But that being said, how does this affect BYU's chances in the tournament?  Davies was probably the second most influential player on the teams as far as ability and stats.

I've always felt that it would be difficult for BYU to compete with the bigger, more physical, and more athletic teams in the NCAA even with the interior presence of Davies.  UNM showed that a good game plan of attacking the paint makes BYU vulnerable.  But was last night an aberration or a sign of things to come?  It's a little hard to tell.  I think a lot of that loss can be chalked up to the emotions of losing a teammate in a hard situation.  Jimmer certainly won't shoot that bad again.  But the lack of a dominant player can't be ignored.

But even without Davies, I think BYU can make it to the final or semi final of the MWC tournament.  And if they do, they should get at least a 3 seed in the NCAA tournament.  That would mean they have a high likelihood of playing a mid-major in the tournament for the first round.  That would be a good matchup for BYU.  Then, after that, you never know what a good 3-point shooting team can do in the tournament.  And BYU shoots lights out.  My prediction is that BYU will one-up their performance from last year and win 2 games to make it to the Sweet 16.  But I think that's probably as far as they go.

The dismissal of Davies will hurt BYU as a Basketball team.  It's hard to make a big splash without a good player inside and outside.  But while the Basketball team may suffer from this, the school is earning a lot of respect for its decision.

NCAA Basketball: Who wants to be #1? BYU

ESPN College Basketball Analyst, Digger Phelps, has now mentioned the same interesting stat 2 weeks in a row during College Gameday:  In the last 15 years, only 1 team ranked #1 overall has won the NCAA Tournament.  It's beginning to look as if the teams are thinking that the #1 spot is cursed. 

Ohio State held the top spot for several weeks, but lost it a couple weeks ago when Wisconsin beat them (and coincidentally, Wisconsin knocked them out of the #1 spot in football this season too).  Kansas was then voted #1, but they lost their very first game after receiving that ranking, even though they held it all week.  During that week, any one of the next 3 teams in the standings: Texas, Ohio State, and Pitt, could have taken over the top spot, but they all lost.  That left Duke to climb 4 spots to #1, which was the biggest climb to #1 in the history of the polls.  So this week, the first week after being back at #1, Duke lost to Virginia Tech, and once again several teams had a chance to jump up.  Kansas and Ohio State actually won their games, but Texas, Pitt and San Diego State all lost.

So who wants the #1 spot?! Anyone...?  Beuhler...?  It really doesn't seem like anyone is trying too hard to get there and keep it.

While Kansas or Ohio State will probably jump up to #1, there's only one team that continues winning week in and week out.  And they finally have some good enough wins to stake a claim for that spot:

BYU is now 27-2.  Their only losses are at New Mexico, and home to UCLA.  Neither one of those is a bad loss, and they are currently on a 7 game winning streak.  Big wins include home and away to San Diego State (ranked #4 both times), and Arizona (now ranked #10).  Those are wins that would rival any top team in the nation.  BYU also has the nation's leading scorer and the front runner for Player of the Year Jimmer Fredette.  So while the other top teams keep dropping games, it is not unfathomable that BYU could sneak into a number one overall spot.  It might take a lot to overcome the "small conference" label, but winning the Mountain West conference tourney, and a few more losses here and there in the top 4 or 5 teams could land them the #1 overall seed in the tournament.  And who knows how far they could go from there.