The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
How will voters evalute Bouknight?
On Sunday, March 7, the Big East will release its allconference and all-freshman teams, kicking off the league’s awards week that will culminate a few days later with the Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, etc. being named.
It’s hard to think of a tougher year to hand out such superlatives.
How do you choose the Coach of the Year? Does it go to a coach that handled his team the best through COVID-19 pauses and postponements? Does Jay Wright, whose team has lived up to lofty expectations as preseason league favorites despite a lengthy pause, win for a seventh time? How about Dan Hurley, whose team has weathered several pauses and six weeks without James Bouknight, but who jokingly (and somewhat accurately) noted that he’s a better coach now that Bouknight is back?
Player of the Year is even trickier. Last year, the Big East boasted the nation’s leading scorer in Marquette’s Markus Howard — and he didn’t even win the award! Instead it went to Myles Powell, who averaged 21 points per game and led Seton Hall to a share of the league’s regular season title.
This year’s field offers no such obvious candidates. The award usually goes to a player on one of the top teams, but will Collin Gillespie and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (last year’s Freshman of the Year) split the Villanova vote? Creighton’s Marcus Zegarowski was the preseason pick, but he’s just starting to come on strong after a slowish start. Seton Hall’s Sandro Mamukelashvili may be the most versatile talent, but the Pirates may not even be an NCAA tournament team. Same for St. John’s and league leading scorer Julian Champagnie.
Then there’s the James Bouknight conundrum. If the award went to the most talented player in the league, the player most likely to be an NBA star, Bouknight would be an easy choice. He actually has a higher scoring average than Champagnie, both in Big East games (21.3) and overall (20.5).
But Bouknight won’t show up on the league’s leading scorers list this season. He’s played just seven Big East games and 10 games overall. The most he’ll end up playing would be nine of the Huskies’ 17 Big East games (53 percent) and 12 of their 20 overall games (60 percent). To rank among the league’s top scorers, a player must have appeared in at least 75 percent of his team’s games.
There are no such guidelines when it comes to earning votes for conference awards, however. The leagues’ coaches (and, most likely in some cases, sports information directors) can vote for anyone they want, whether they’ve played in one Big East game or 20.
Even in limited action, Bouknight’s had a massive impact on the league. He scored 40 points (in the flow of the game) in an overtime loss to Creighton. He’s been mesmerizing in wins over Providence, Georgetown and, on Saturday, Marquette. The Huskies are 5-2 with Bouknight in Big East games, 4-4 without him.
The national awards lists have taken notice. Bouknight was one of just 20 players put on the Wooden Award LateSeason Watch List on Feb. 1, even though he hadn’t played in nearly a month and his return was still no certainty at the time. He made the top-10 for the Jerry West Award for nation’s top shooting guard, as well, though he failed to make the top-5 list announced this past week.
All that said, it’s hard to conclude Bouknight deserves to be Big East Player of the Year. At some point, actually playing in the games matters, and Bouknight just didn’t play in enough.
As for all-conference, however, if you don’t think Bouknight played enough to merit a vote, fine. But if you do, he’s got to be first team. Either first team or not any team. If Bouknight winds up on second team or honorable mention, that’s just silly.
And what about All-American honors? He’s good enough, but did he play enough? UConn hasn’t had an AllAmerican since Shabazz Napier in 2014.
Funny thing is, none of this probably matters much to Bouknight. He is fully invested in getting UConn to the NCAA tournament and making a run. He’s got an NBA future ahead of him. When he was curiously picked for Big East preseason second team by the league’s coaches, Bouknight shrugged his shoulders and said: “I’m honestly honored that the coaches feel I’m a top-10 player in the league.”
Bouknight is the best player in the league. But he likely won’t win Big East Player of the Year honors. And that’s OK.
HANDING OUT OUR AWARDS
Here’s how we envision this season’s Big East awards unfolding. Besides Bouknight, it will be interesting to see how UConn players are feted. Isaiah Whaley, who leads the league in blocked shots, would seem to have a good chance at Defensive Player of the Year. However, Robinson-Earl gets a lot of national
love for his defense, particularly from Jay Bilas, who seems to be his personal P.R. manager. Tyler Polley for Sixth Man of the Year? Again, we feel this could end up being a Villanova lovefest. And that’s understandable:
Player of the Year: Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Villanova.
Coach of the Year: Mike Anderson, St. John’s.
Freshman of the Year: Posh Alexander, St. John’s; Dawson Garcia, Marquette.
Defensive Player of the Year: Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.
Sixth Man of the Year: Cole Swider, Villanova
Most Improved Player: Myles Cale, Seton Hall.
ALL-BIG EAST First Team
Sandro Mamukelashvili, Seton Hall Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Villanova Collin Gillespie, Villanova Marcus Zegarowski, Creighton Julian Champagnie, St. John’s James Bouknight, UConn
Second Team
David Duke, Providence Nate Watson, Providence Zach Freemantle, Xavier Denzel Mahoney, Creighton Paul Scruggs, Xavier
Honorable Mention
Qudus Wahab, Georgetown Jared Rhoden, Seton Hall R.J. Cole, UConn All-Freshman
Posh Alexander, St. John’s Dawson Garcia, Marquette Colby Jones, Xavier Adama Sanogo, UConn Chuck Harris, Butler