best counter

Your Ad Here
Just The Sports: Another Player of the Year Candidate

Just The Sports

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Another Player of the Year Candidate

When I originally listed players I felt were worthy player of the year candidates, I left out one player who deserves recognition as much as the others. Here that oversight will be rectified. In terms of helping his team achieve success on the college basketball scene, Oregon Ducks senior point guard Aaron Brooks has done as much as Alando Tucker, Nick Fazekas, or Kevin Durant.

Not only is Brooks the only senior player on Oregon's roster who averages more than twenty minutes per game, he plays the most minutes per game (36.6), scores the most points per game (19.1), and accumulates the most steals per game (1.7) of any other Duck. Brooks also has the best assist-to-turnover ratio among guards on his team.

On the way to averaging his 19.1 points per game, Brooks has compiled a 62.1% true shooting percentage, which places him above both Tucker and Durant, but behind Fazekas. As expected due to the fact he is the only point guard in the bunch, Brooks's assist rate is tops amongst these four players. If he had been the best rebounder, that would have been something to take carefully detailed note of. Since Brooks's advantage lies in his ability to dish out assists, he should get no more credit for that achievement than a father should get for taking care of his children.

Brooks does struggle with consistency, though. Although he has played well of late, his points scored standard deviation for the entire season is second-highest after Durant. Unlike some players whose wide range of point totals is the direct result of taking an inconsistent number of shots per game, the reason for Brooks's standard deviation is that he has been an inconsistent shooter from the field. His true shooting percentage standard deviation of .150 is higher than Fazekas's, Durant's, and Tucker's, which casts a storm cloud over his excellent play for the season.

Brooks's place in the pantheon of great college basketball players is secure; however, unless he puts on an amazing display over the last few games, the national player of the year honor may be just out of his reach.

Labels:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home