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Big Sky Player of the Year

J

jon

Well-known member
Hey all, wrote up a post looking at what I see as the top candidates for the Player of the Year in the Big Sky. With Cherry's injury, it seems like it is a race with a lot of candidates and no clear favorite.

http://www.bigskybball.com/2013/03/candidates-for-big-sky-player-of-year.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Would love to hear your thoughts.

My top 3 right now:
1. Kareem Jamar
2. Derrick Barden
3. Troy Huff

Thoughts?
 
Jon, another great write up. I was wondering about this during the GRIZ/SUU game. Your review is spot on. There just is not an obvious choice. A legitimate case could be made for any of the mentioned. For me it comes to Berry and Jamar. The others have not stood out enough on average teams to be in the running. Jamar's stats would be better if the team was not so balanced for most this season.

Since the loss of Ward and Cherry, his numbers have been amazing and "THE" reason why the GRIZ are where they are at now. His performance against a very good Davidson team was amazing as well. Kareem fills whatever role Wayne asks of him from game to game, with good results. At the UNC game, Barden was killing the GRIZ every way possible. Kareem told Wayne to put him on Barden. After that, Barden was shut down for the most part. He also had one hell of an offensive game at Greeley.
Jamar is the most complete player in the conference. He could average 20 PPG, 6 assists, 7 rebounds per game if asked too. In conference play, he has been the primary reason that saved the GRIZ 3 to 4 losses.

I also have watched Weber State often, and offensively Berry impresses me every game, except the 1st GRIZ/Weber State game. It is hard not to vote for him as well. Granted, I have not seen every second of every Weber State game this year. He has been flat out amazing and in a zone almost every game I see him play.

Jamar gets my vote slightly because of his being asked to take on more for his team since the loss of Cherry and Ward. He has delivered big time. Neither player can let down this week. They are both great players, cannot wait to see them battle next year too.
 
mtgrizrule said:
...it comes to Berry and Jamar. The others have not stood out enough on average teams to be in the running. Jamar's stat would be better if the team was not so balanced for most this season.
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It's between those two as far as I'm concerned. Others perhaps may be scoring more, on teams that don't have much else when it comes to having any type of offense. But the two above are "willing" their teams to win; not just jacking up statistics.
 
I too think Jamar is the best player in the conference, and as you say mt, it stats would look a whole lot better if there was less balance.

Just worry that people might look at the stats and see him averaging a lot less per game and for that to take away a bit from Jamar. I think he will wind up winning it, but that is a scenario that I think could be plausible.

Love Berry, he does everything well. It would be interesting to see Huff and Berry swap teams. Berry is a better shooter and passer, but it seems like Huff is a better rebounder and a little bit better athlete. Hard to gauge sometimes because of the difference in teammates can skew stats so much.
 
I think you could end this argument right now by asking the coaches in the league this question:

"If all of the players listed had 3 years of eligibility left, who would you choose to build your team around?"

I am guessing there would be a small number of Berry votes, and the vast majority of the remaining votes would go to KJ. He just does EVERYthing well, is a great floor general, makes those around him better, and can flat-out take over a game if he needs to. Those kind of players are rare.
 
The problem with Berry and Bamforth is that they don't even crack the top 15 in the Big Sky in finishing their team's possession, indicative that they're more like contributors/role players on the floor than go-to-guys. Bamforth doesn't even crack top 30, actually. While both have been way more efficient than Jamar, they're less involved on the floor, so it's no wonder.

I'd vote Jamar one, Huff two, Rogers three. Jamar is 2nd in league in minutes, 9th in finishing possessions and 3rd in offensive efficiency for guys in the top 15 of finishing possessions. And he plays for the winningest team currently.

Second place I'd vote Huff. He finishes more possessions than anyone, is still 5th in offensive efficiency for guys in the top 15 of finishing possessions and is scoring points.

Third Rogers. 1st in minutes, 4th in finishing possessions, and scoring lots of points, too.

POY: Jamar

First team:
Huff
Rogers
Berry
Cherry
One of the guys below:

Ward
Treznek
Bamforth
Barden
Heuir
Stevenett
 
weberwildcat said:
Mvp in 2013 should go to best player from the team that hosts.
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Almost always does. In this, Jamar the likely choice. He's also the most deserving, in my view, which is not always the case with POY voting. The coaches rarely stray from the team that wins the regular season title.
 
I also think it should be KJ. Because he can do so many things so well he is an absolute matchup nightmare. One of the things that is most impressive is his overall consistency. I recall reading in another thread that before this last week's games KJ was in the top 10 in 9 of 11 statistical categories kept by the league. No other player in the BSC comes close to that figure.

If he keeps it up the POY should be his without question.
 
Kareem is the frontrunner in my opinion also. He is versitile and makes the players around him better. Take the davidson game for example he had 28 points 12 rebounds 7 assists and 2 blks. Even though he only shot 8-20 which is still 40% he assisted on 18 points counting 3's which accounted for a 1/2 of the grizzles offense that game. He is able to stretch the floor and his strength is unmatched by anyone in the conference. he does everything well and creates matchup nightmares for opponents. He has had to step up this season due to injuries he has answered the call like a true leader.
 
Gotta go with KJ too. It seems he is heating up (again) like last season........look out :thumb:

Oh yeah, here is a reminder that the rest of the conference will get a dose of him again next year. :thumb:
 
Here's where Kareem is ranked in Big Sky statistics:

2012-13 Big Sky Conf. Rank -- Individual Statistics
for KAREEM JAMAR
Montana -- Junior

PLEASE NOTE: The Big Sky site does NOT indicate if Monday's game is included. But I checked Montana's stats and believe the Big Sky stats ARE updated. FYI: Jamar also averages .7 blocked shots p/g, .9 steals p/g (behind Will Cherry's average of 1.9 p/g), and free throws @ 3.6 made out of 5.0 attempts per game.

Points Per Game -- 7th @ 14.3
Rebounding -- 9th @ 6.0
Field Goal % -- 13th @ .478
Assists -- 3rd @ 4.1 (behind Will Cherry's 4.4 p/g)
Assist-to-turnover ratio -- 7th @ 1.5
Free Throw % -- not ranked
Steals -- not ranked
3-Point makes p/g -- not ranked
3-Point % -- 15th @ .382
Blocked shots -- 15th @ 0.7
Offensive rebounds -- not ranked
Defensive rebounds -- 6th @ 4.8
Minutes played -- 2nd @ 34.7

Pretty impressive. But what really floored me during my "casual" research was how highly ranked both Will Cherry & Matthias Ward are in Big Sky stats rankings. Floored... as in, "How do we measure KJ's leadership ranking in leading the Griz after Ward & Cherry went down with injuries?
Amazing.
KJ's actually under-rated if you just look at stats.
 
also probly our last chance to see reem up close. he thinkin about comin out a year early for the draft. hope he dont but thats what i heard.
 
JAKEweezy93 said:
also probly our last chance to see reem up close. he thinkin about comin out a year early for the draft. hope he dont but thats what i heard.
Click to expand...

Pay no attention to the voices in your head Weezy. :thumb:
 
It's going to come down to Jamar or Berry. No doubt about it. The funny thing is, I wouldn't be shocked if one or two coaches voted for Cherry or Ward, too, thus causing a split in the Montana vote. I hate to say it, but although I still feel Berry and Cherry are better players than Jamar, the Griz simply couldn't function without KJ and that's why he is the MVP in my mind. It particularly showed after Ward and Cherry went down and he held Montana together for these final four games of the regular season. Well ... three so far.
 
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