Of perhaps more interest is the three All-America teams and Player of the Year and Coach of the Year picks voters are asked to submit. Here are my selections:
FIRST TEAM
Trey Burke, Michigan
Victor Oladipo, Indiana
Otto Porter, Jr., Georgetown
Doug McDermott, Creighton
Marcus Smart, Oklahoma State
SECOND TEAM
Kelly Olynyk, Gonzaga
Mason Plumlee, Duke
Cody Zeller, IndianaShane Larkin, Miami
Ben McLemore, Kansas
THIRD TEAM
DeShaun Thomas, Ohio State
Shabazz Napier, Connecticut
Russ Smith, Louisville
Anthony Bennett, UNLV
Shabazz Muhammed, UCLA
Player of the Year: Otto Porter, Jr., Georgetown
Coach of the Year: Jim Larranaga, Miami
Yup, I went with Napier on Third Team. That's not homerism, but rather someone who watched him play all season while much of the rest of the country seemed to ignore him and his team.
I often side with the Big East, so Porter was an easy choice for me. As for Coach of the Year, I strongly considered Jim Crews of St. Louis, who took over for the late Rick Majerus under tough circumstances. But people forget the Billikens were expected to be a Top 15/20 team this season. I gave the slight edge to Larranaga, who, I'm sure, is hated more by UConn fans for being the coach of THAT George Mason team in 2006 than he is for being a former standout player at Providence.
Oh yeah, that Top 25 I was talking about earlier:
1.
Gonzaga
2.
Louisville
3.
Indiana
4.
Kansas
5.
Miami
6.
Duke
7.
Ohio State
8.
Georgetown
9.
New Mexico
10.
Michigan
11.
St. Louis
12.
Michigan State
13.
Kansas State
14.
Florida
15.
Memphis
16.
Oklahoma State
17.
Arizona
18.
Virginia Commonwealth
19.
Marquette
20.
Creighton
21.
Pittsburgh
22.
Oregon
23.
Syracuse
24.
Wisconsin
25.
Mississippi
Still think Gonzaga is #1? That team would of been a .500 team if they played a big east schedule all year. Barely beat Southern and got spanked by Wichita State. I don't understand how they got the nod in seeding over Miami. There best win all year was a "neutral game" vs KSU in Seattle.
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