What my ballot would look like in Power Five awards race, National Player of the Year, all-conference picks

It’s award season in college basketball and the campaigning has begun. Louisville has sent out brochures making the case why Pat Kelsey should be both the ACC Coach of the Year and the National Coach of the Year. A pair of black glasses was included in Louisville’s care package as an ode to the bespectacled Kelsey who has revived a once-dead program so remarkably fast. But the National Player of the Year market is the most popular race right now. Thursday marked a substantial shift as Auburn’s Johni Broome passed Duke’s Cooper Flagg for the top spot in betting markets for the Wooden Award. 

The ebbs and flows in the National Player of the Year chase certainly has a few more twists and turns between two historically-dominant candidates.

But there are way more awards up for grabs. Here’s what my ballot would look like for the bevy of national awards and in of college basketball’s five biggest conferences.

BIG TEN

Coach of the Year: Tom Izzo, Michigan State

Freshman of the Year: Derik Queen, Maryland

Player of the Year: John Tonje, Wisconsin

Defensive Player of the Year: Jaden Akins, Michigan State

First Team

Inside the ballot: Debating between Tonje and Smith for Player of the Year was brutal. Both guys are deserving All-American candidates. Tonje got the nod, solely because he only has been a beacon of consistency for almost all of Big Ten play. The Defensive Player of the Year award was not easy, either. UCLA’s Kobe Johnson and Oregon’s Nate Bittle are two tremendous defenders who deserve real kudos, but Michigan State’s defense has been the best in the league by a country mile. Akins is the head of the snake on that end. 

SEC 

Coach of the Year: Bruce Pearl, Auburn

Freshman of the Year: Tre Johnson, Texas

Player of the Year: Johni Broome, Auburn

Defensive Player of the Year: Jahmai Mashack, Tennessee

First Team

Inside the ballot: Honestly, the SEC was a bit more straightforward than I thought. The Coach of the Year race is insane because the likes of Vanderbilt’s Mark Byington, Missouri’s Dennis Gates, Florida’s Todd Golden and Kentucky’s Mark Pope have done National Coach of the Year-type work and might not get rewarded because of how dominant Auburn has become. Also, it feels wrong not to have the brilliant Collin Murray-Boyles as a first-team All-SEC pick but South Carolina is 1-14 in league play. Chaz Lanier-versus-Zakai Zeigler was closer than you think, but Lanier’s body of work is too hard to ignore.

BIG 12

Coach of the Year: Kelvin Sampson, Houston

Freshman of the Year: VJ Edgecombe, Baylor

Player of the Year: Javon Small, West Virginia

Defensive Player of the Year: Jayden Quaintance, Arizona State

First Team

Inside the ballot: There might be a few eyebrow-raising votes here. Let’s start with Quaintance getting the Defensive Player of the Year nod. Yes, Arizona State’s defense is 11th in Big 12 action, but Quaintance is an insane defensive maestro who single-handedly makes the Sun Devils’ defense competent. Against top-100 competition, Arizona State’s defensive efficiency is 15 points per 100 possessions better with Quaintance on the floor. He put together some incredibly impressive defensive possessions this year. The tape is excellent, so he gets the nod.

The other choice I need to defend is Milos Uzan as a first-team, All-Big 12 guy. He’s the fourth-leading scorer on Houston, but he’s the key cog that makes everything work. Uzan has been uber-efficient in Big 12 play with a sizzling 128.6 offensive rating. That ranks fourth-best in the conference. He never comes off the floor, makes tremendous decisions, guards his tail off and has become a true three-level scorer for the best team in the league. Uzan has been Houston’s best player for a while.

BIG EAST

Coach of the Year: Rick Pitino, St. John’s

Co-freshman of the Year: Liam McNeeley, UConn and Thomas Sorber, Georgetown

Player of the Year: RJ Luis, St. John’s

Defensive Player of the Year: Zuby Ejiofor, St. John’s

First Team

Inside the ballot: There’s a (Red) Storm brewing in the Big East. St. John’s dominates my ballot after it stormed through the Big East. Ejiofor has been one of my favorite defenders in the country. He gets the slight nod over the brilliant Kalkbrenner who will have to settle for just three Big East Defensive Player of the Year awards, not four. Everything else was pretty self-explanatory, except for Freshman of the Year. Since both Sorber and McNeeley will end up missing severe chunks of conference play and the numbers are razor-thin, it makes sense for them to share the award. Both were terrific and the best players on their respective clubs.

ACC

Coach of the Year: Pat Kelsey, Louisville

Freshman of the Year: Cooper Flagg, Duke

Player of the Year: Cooper Flagg, Duke

Defensive Player of the Year: Cooper Flagg, Duke

First Team

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Inside the ballot: The ACC started giving out the Defensive Player of the Year award in 2005. No one has ever won Freshman of the Year, Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season. Cooper Flagg is on pace to rewrite the history books.

The fifth spot in the All-ACC team was tough. UNC’s RJ Davis and Wake Forest’s Hunter Sallis certainly have a case, but Clemson is 15-2 in the ACC and Schieffelin has had a phenomenal year as an efficient, connect-the-dots, two-way force. He got the nod in favor of Davis and Sallis, who would likely admit they haven’t had quite as dominant of a season that they envisioned when they chose to run it back.

NATIONAL SELECTIONS

National Player of the Year: Cooper Flagg, Duke

National Freshman of the Year: Cooper Flagg, Duke

National Defensive Player of the Year: Jahmai Mashack, Tennessee

National Coach of the Year: Rick Pitino, St. John’s

First Team All-Americans

• G Braden Smith, Purdue
• G Walter Clayton Jr., Florida
• Wing John Tonje, Wisconsin
• F Cooper Flagg, Duke
• F Johni Broome, Auburn

Inside the ballot: Broome is the betting-odds favorite, but I still think Flagg wins out for National Player of the Year. He’s surpassed Frank Kaminsky for the highest kenpom.com Player of the Year rating since the site began tracking it in 2010-11. That matters to me. 

It’s not hyperbole to say that Flagg has had one of the all-time individual seasons that we’ve seen in college basketball history for a 25-3 Duke club that has real National Championship aspirations. 

If voters want to take Broome, I’m all for it. What a glorious player. But I’m raising the Flagg.