MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[hasanova]

POY -  Brandon Adair, again, hands down!
FIRST TEAM - Brandon Adair - what can you say...ALL All American
                     Ton Ton Balenga - shooter with an attitude
                     Tyler Fantin - work horse
                     Thomas Sumpter - solid
                     Ben Strong - tallest

There you have it. My unbiased selection

With all due respect, this is a gross disservice to Ben.  He is much more than just the "tallest."  Why don't we just call it the "Virginia Wesleyan Athletic Conference" and relegate everyone else to the untalented obscurity they deserve?  lol 

[jdubyadubya]

Jeez - it was supposed to be humorous for cripe sakes! Forget that

[Brian Hamilton]

Hassanova,

I understand your frustration, but you must realize that not everyone who is picking Adair is a VWC fan.  I have not chimed in yet, but I also would have to side with Adair for POY.  Strong has been impressive and has lead his team and the conference in many significant categories, but he also has to do that in order for his team to win.  Adair does not have to lead the team in scoring in order for his team to be competitive night in and night out due to the wealth of talent that VWC has.  As a result, his numbers are lower than Strongs.  However, he excels at making those around him better and has an uncanny ability for passing out of the low post.  While Strong had a superb statistical year and has impressed me very much, I still feel that Adair is the player that is most deserving of POY.  Someone else already mentioned TJ Grimes, but I think that it is worth mentioning again.  TJ did not lead the league in scoring becuase he had 3 other 1,000 point scorers on the team with him.  He was, however, clutch and had all of the intangibles.  I think that is where Adair has Strong this year.  Strong is hands down the front runner for next year, but I believe that Adair will be POY this year for all of the above reasons and the fact that he is a senior.  May not be fair, but stats do not always tell the truth either!

Having said that, none of us get a vote and this is all speculation so we have to wait at least another 24+ hours to know for sure.

[hasanova]

Jeez - it was supposed to be humorous for cripe sakes! Forget that

So was mine for "cripe sakes!" 

[hasanova]

I sincerely respect everyone's opinion, but I stand by my assertion that Strong clearly had the best year in 2006-07.  If it's now a Senior award, let's rename it.  If it's Player of the "two" Year(s), let's rename it.  If it's a "once you're named National Player of the Year, you're golden for the rest of your life" award, let's rename it.   If it's a "Player of the Year from the returning National Champions award", let's rename it.  I hear all of you and I do truly respect your thoughts, but I am equally adamant in believing it should go to Strong.  Adair is, without question, a great player.  Brandon just simply did not have the best year in the ODAC by some large margins.  In fact, I'm slightly taken aback that there's any real doubt for this year. 

I know all of you (including me!) are tired of this POY discussion, so I'll put a sock in it.  As Brian said, we'll all have to wait until Wednesday's banquet.  May the best man win! 

[algernon]

I just want to note the balanced play among these 5 Tigers this year.  None of them will make the ODAC First Team and it would be hard to say who is most deserving of the honor of Second Team, but there is no doubt that the Tigers have a whole bunch of strong players who are worthy of Honorable Mention, if not more:

EDWARDS, Mike....13.5 PTS/G, 3.2 R/G, 2.6 A/G, .333 3PT%, .770 FT%

KING, Turner...... ..12.1 PTS/G, 4.5 R/G, 1.7 A/G, .476 3PT%, .483 FT%

PREHMUS, Drew....11.8 PTS/G, 5.9 R/G, 2.2 A/G, .426 3PT%, .816 FT%

MURRAY, Tyler.......10.8 PTS/G, 5.6 R/G, 2.1 A/G, .533 3PT%, .657 FT%

GREEN, Matt........... 9.2 PTS/G, 2.7 R/G, 4.0 A/G, .420 3PT%, .808 FT%

[jdubyadubya]

Nova - Yes, I like renaming it "Player of the Year from the Returning National Champions." It does have a nice ring to it, doesn't it!

[hasanova]

Nova - Yes, I like renaming it "Player of the Year from the Returning National Champions." It does have a nice ring to it, doesn't it!

Yes, I suppose it does.    I sincerely hope the ODAC has another national champion this year - just don't be too upset with me if I hope they come from "south of the Virginia border."  lol  I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm expecting a very entertaining day on Thursday!  I'm ready for postseason hoops to begin!

[tigerfanalso]

Nova

As I stated earlier, you getting too frustrated over this POY debate. I have no bias, Strong clearly had the best year and that cannot be debated, he does not play on the best team and probably will not win the award for that reason and that reason only. Adair is great, has enjoyed another great year, he has the history of winning this award, and he is probably going to get it; that does not change my mind about Strong. He is clearly the best in the ODAC in my opinion this year and that is what the award should be based on; however, I don't think the voters will go that way. Hope the surprize us but I'm not counting on it. Hang in there, we all know "life is not fair".

[Matt Barnhart (kid)]

I know it doesn't have anything to do with POTY (directly), but I think it's worth noting that Ben Strong was named ODAC Player of the Week five times, while Brandon Adair earned that honor three times.

W&L's Greg Bienemann was the only other to earn the distinction mutiple times, earning it twice.

I would vote this way for conference honors...

POTY - Strong
FOTY - Dominic Trawick (BC)

First Team
Strong
Adair
Bienemann
TonTon Balenga (VWC)
Jordan Snipes (GC)

Second Team
Jason Sager (EMU)
Curtis Perry (RC)
Drew Prehmus (HSC)
David Carlson (RMC)
Mike Edwards (HSC)

[narch]

i'll add an outsiders opinion, and i've seen both play

...they're both deserving and should be co-poty, in my opinion

having said that, i ran their numbers through my pvr formula

some of you may be familiar with this formula (in fact, many of you helped me develop the formula through your input on this and the usasac board)

(ppg+rpg+spg)*1.5 + (apg+bpg)*2 - (topg)*1.5 = PVR

using conference only statistics to negate schedule differences:
strong - 23.8 ppg, 10.9 rpg, .33 spg, 1.06 apg, 2.5 bpg, 2.22 topg=56.33 pvr

adair - 18.6 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 1.22 spg, 2.56 apg, .22 bpg, 1.17 topg=44.94 pvr

i understand the "intangibles" argument, but they aren't really even close statistically...i ran pvr for the usasac players, and the difference between the #1 player (47.35) and the #13 player (36.1) was approximately equivalent to the difference between strong and adair

[jdubyadubya]

OK, OK. I've changed my mind. I'm voting for Hasanova for POY, POSTER OF THE YEAR 8)

[justafan02]

This is my last word on the Player of the Year.  I am frustrated to see that some think if Adair wins it, that it was based on last years awards rather than what he accomplished this year.  In fact it is almost like some are saying he had a down year, so I compaired his stats this year with last years (when they were good enough to win National Player of the year) to see what the big deal was.  I highlighted the stat that was better in the two years.

2005-2006                              2006-2007
18.8 points                       18 points
6.4 rebounds                                  7.8 rebounds
2.3 assists                                  2.4 assists
32 steals (in 32 games)           31 steals (in 24 games)
.624 field goal percent             679 field goal percent
Record 22-3                           Record 22-3

Now looking at these stats, Adair has improved between years.  His ppg are down one point from last year, but don't forget that he went crazy in the last 8 games (ODAC's and NCAA tourney) and averaged 22.5 points per game to increase his season totals.  Now I believe that either Adair or Strong are desearving of the POY and either one alone would be a no brainer.  If Strong wins, he desearves it and visa versa.  However, to say that Strong was that much better than Adair or that the vote is hands down for either candidate is crazy.  It will be close and both are very desearving, but Brandon Adair has been as good this year as last and if he wanted to average 25 points a game, he would have no problem doing so, but the Marlins would not be #2 in the Nation. 

[justafan02]

I know it doesn't have anything to do with POTY (directly), but I think it's worth noting that Ben Strong was named ODAC Player of the Week five times, while Brandon Adair earned that honor three times.

W&L's Greg Bienemann was the only other to earn the distinction mutiple times, earning it twice.

I would vote this way for conference honors...

POTY - Strong
FOTY - Dominic Trawick (BC)

First Team
Strong
Adair
Bienemann
TonTon Balenga (VWC)
Jordan Snipes (GC)

Second Team
Jason Sager (EMU)
Curtis Perry (RC)
Drew Prehmus (HSC)
David Carlson (RMC)
Mike Edwards (HSC)

I think your going to be pretty close with this one except there needs to be some E&H guys on your second team.  Snipes, Balenga, Adair, Strong....can't beat that

[old_lion]

Nova

As I stated earlier, you getting too frustrated over this POY debate. I have no bias, Strong clearly had the best year and that cannot be debated, he does not play on the best team and probably will not win the award for that reason and that reason only. Adair is great, has enjoyed another great year, he has the history of winning this award, and he is probably going to get it; that does not change my mind about Strong. He is clearly the best in the ODAC in my opinion this year and that is what the award should be based on; however, I don't think the voters will go that way. Hope the surprize us but I'm not counting on it. Hang in there, we all know "life is not fair".

Another outsider's opinion ...

I don't have a dog in this fight ... as a matter of fact, I don't even know these dogs. I'm just commenting on the theory that if you are not on the best team you are almost considered ineligible for the POY award by some people.

IMHO, that is pure, unadulterated crap. How about "the other side of the coin"? ... the theory that, in a lot of ways, it is even harder to excel if your team is less outstanding than the team of another player you are being compared to.