Revisiting The Preseason All-Americans
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As is the case every preseason, the AP released a list of players who comprised their All-Americans and now that we are about a week and change away from Selection Sunday, how did their choices hold up? Would the choices still be the same now that the bulk of the season has been played? First off, the preseason list:
Luke Harangody – Senior Forward, Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Cole Aldrich – Junior Center, Kansas Jayhawks
Sherron Collins – Senior Guard, Kansas Jayhawks
Patrick Patterson – Junior Forward, Kentucky Wildcats
Kyle Singler, Junior Forward, Duke Blue Devils
That’s a pretty stout list, regardless of what team you root for. All of these players have had good-to-great seasons, knee injuries notwithstanding. But would this group still be apart of the first-team All American roster if it was assembled today? How about some players that may have been left off?
Players like:
Evan Turner (Ohio State)
John Wall (Kentucky)
Scottie Reynolds (Villanova)
Wes Johnson (Syracuse)
All come to mind. But if you are going to replace someone from the preseason, who would it be? First off, there’s the Evan Turner situation. Clearly, Turner is one of the favorites for National Player of the Year, so who does he replace? Harangody because of the knee or Patrick Patterson, who took a back-but-still-productive seat to John Calipari’s stable of wunder-freshmen? What about Kyle Singler? Singler’s had a great season, but Turner’s been top-three-pick-in-the-NBA-lottery good.
How about John Wall? Does perhaps the most popular player for the 2009-10 season replace a good-to-great Sherron Collins? If so, how? Would that be based on who will be the better NBA player or has Wall outplayed Collins this season? Statistically, it’s a close, close race, but frankly, I find it difficult to believe the AP would replace a senior point guard on perhaps the best team in the country with a freshman. Nevertheless, here’s their statistical breakdown:
Does the excitement associated with Wall win out since the rest looks an awful lot like a dead heat or does the experience and savvy of Collins take precedence?
The same questions can be asked of players like Wes Johnson and Scottie Reynolds. While Reynolds probably doesn’t have the “Q-rating” to beat out Collins and Wall, he’s easily been just as productive as his counterparts. If not more so.
Simply put, when the players are this good, it comes down to preference, really. Wes Johnson and Kyle Singler are both great, productive players and there’s not really a bad choice between the two. Granted, the Evan Turner explosion wasn’t anticipated, but his preseason snub can be rectified, especially if he wins the Player of the Year award. All in all, it looks like the AP made some solid, safe choices for their preseason list and as long as Evan Turner is represented on the season-ending list, there’s really no need to complain.
I guess this is a question for Buckeye fans but is Evan Turner a better Buckeye than Michael Redd?
Redd took his team to a Final Four. If Turner can duplicate that this March, he might just be.
I think Turner will be a better pro than Redd because he’s more than a specialist. Granted, Redd has had some really good NBA years, but Turner’s all-around game is better.
Let’s just hope Turner stays off the DL, something neither Redd not Oden have been able to do.
I could also live without the naked pics of Turner floating around the internet.
Yeah, avoiding the DL seems to be an issue for Buckeyes. As long as he avoids the “Mike Conley = Bust” path during his pro career, I think Turner will be alright. And then, once he finds NBA stardom, everybody can revisit those naked pics you mentioned.