MAC Award Races
There's a lot of the season left to be seen but I wanted to take an early look at the MAC Award races.
Player of the Year:
(Stats go in order of PPG, RPG, APG, SPG, BPG, TPG, and then the shooting splits)
Tayler Persons, Ball St - 17.1|3.9|5.1|1.0|0.1|3.1 0.485|0.417|0.847
Justin Turner, BGSU ---- 18.9|3.8|3.9|1.1|0.4|1.6 0.505|0.371|0.630
CJ Massinburg, Buffalo - 17.8|6.5|3.0|1.4|0.3|1.3 0.475|0.443|0.755
Larry Austin Jr, CMU ---- 18.6|5.7|5.0|2.4|0.1|3.1 0.524|0.111|0.551
Jaylin Walker, Kent St --- 22.6|5.0|1.8|1.4|0.1|2.0 0.449|0.514|0.875
Eugene German, NIU ---- 20.5|4.4|3.1|1.0|0.2|2.7 0.503|0.447|0.711
If you base this purely on stats, it's tough to come out of this with a true favorite. Massinburg arguably has the least impressive stats of the six players listed, but he would probably be pegged as the favorite at this point due to the success that Buffalo has had this year. Worth noting: the strength of schedules of the 6 teams listed:
Ball St: 58
BGSU: 290
Buffalo: 84
CMU: 348
Kent St: 282
NIU: 194
It would make sense if Persons and Massinburg's stats got better as the season goes along, and the opposite for Turner, Austin, and Walker.
Freshman of the Year:
There isn't a whole lot to look at this year, which in part can be credited to how much returning talent there is in the MAC. Below is a list of all the freshman in the MAC averaging at least 15 minutes per game:
Caleb Fields, BGSU ------- 4.5|1.5|0.7|0.5|0.0|0.4 0.356|0.350|0.500
Mekhi Lairy, Miami ------- 6.9|1.9|1.6|0.5|0.0|1.0 0.468|0.314|0.875
Trendon Hankerson, NIU - 9.0|4.0|1.0|3.0|1.0|1.0 0.750|0.750|0.000
* Note that Hankerson has literally only played in one game
Ben Vander Plas, Ohio --- 10.5|4.9|1.5|1.0|0.6|1.4 0.451|0.366|0.783
Jason Preston, Ohio ------ 5.8|3.0|2.6|0.7|0.2|1.7 0.492|0.273|0.643
Patrick Emilien, WMU ---- 3.4|3.6|0.4|0.4|0.1|0.8 0.306|0.207|0.667
Adrian Martin, WMU ----- 2.1|1.7|0.5|0.9|0.0|0.6 0.177|0.188|0.667
Pretty clearly it should be Vander Plas from Ohio. The only thing that could stop him from winning is a huge late season run from another freshman, or maybe if Hankerson starts to regularly play and contribute.
6th Man of the Year:
Nick Perkins, Buffalo - 13.4|8.3|0.8|0.6|1.4|1.7 0.435|0.286|0.656
Jaylin Walker, Kent St - 22.6|5.0|1.8|1.4|0.1|2.0 0.449|0.514|0.875
It's basically a two horse race. Walker in past years has not been coming off the bench, but in the 9 games that he's played so far he has came off the bench in all of them. If this continues and his current stats hold up, I think Walker is the favorite for the award. If Walker gets moved into the starting lineup, Perkins is likely to 3-peat.
Defensive Player of the Year:
This one's tough because stats don't tell you much about a player's defensive ability. Last year Tim Bond won DPOY with 2.4 SPG and 1.1 BPG. No one in the MAC has as outrageous of a combination this year, with maybe Kevin McKay from CMU being the closest at 1.9 SPG and 1.1 BPG, or Doug Taylor from Ohio at 1.0 SPG and 2.2 BPG.
Some other people to look at include Davonta Jordan (1.5 SPG and 0.6 BPG) from Buffalo, Darrian Ringo (2.6 SPG and 0.2 BPG) from Miami, Tahjai Teague (1.3 SPG and 1.0 BPG) from Ball St, Elijah Minnie (1.6 SPG and 0.7 BPG) from EMU, Trey Moses (0.6 SPG and 1.7 BPG) from Ball St, and Boubacar Toure (0.6 SPG and 1.7 BPG) from EMU. This is admittedly going to be the least accurate list given, as I haven't watched a lot of these guys play. From an eye test Jordan stands out, but who knows how much that's worth.
Coach of the Year:
It's probably too early to look at this one because it will largely be determined by the final MAC standings. Nate Oats is probably the front runner after getting his team into the top 25. But this should be revisited later in the year when we have a better picture of the MAC standings.
I'm curious on other peoples' thoughts on this topic
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