Thought Painter was a slam dunk, but a few talking heads said they would vote for Collins. Who do you think will win the award this week?
BIG COTY
- Thread starter boilernuke
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I favor CMP as no one had them anywhere. Only 5 losses. B10 champs out of nowhere. I would think even though NW lost 2 kids to transfer, Purdue lost a higher % of it's scoring than NW did.
More times than not.... the winner is the first place team out of nowhere. But if NW wins the B10 tourney & Purdue losses first game in the B10 tourney, perhaps Collins edges ahead? But it is not usually the case when the conference winner comes out of nowhere.
More times than not.... the winner is the first place team out of nowhere. But if NW wins the B10 tourney & Purdue losses first game in the B10 tourney, perhaps Collins edges ahead? But it is not usually the case when the conference winner comes out of nowhere.
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By rights it should be Painter's; projected as middle of the pack after losing a lottery pick and a bunch of scoring, won the conference by three games and was #1 for seven weeks with a freshman starting backcourt.
People will say "Oh, Purdue has the national player of the year," as if that were a given in November. It ignores the job Painter (and Brantley) have done in developing Edey.
People will say "Oh, Purdue has the national player of the year," as if that were a given in November. It ignores the job Painter (and Brantley) have done in developing Edey.
Collins might get the edge because Northwestern is Northwestern. And, I'm OK with that. Purdue got the regular season championship.
I will say this, Northwestern won with two seniors leading the way. Purdue won the league with two true freshmen in the starting line-up.
I will say this, Northwestern won with two seniors leading the way. Purdue won the league with two true freshmen in the starting line-up.
I agree in that I wouldn't be surprised if Collins wins it. Do the Big Ten media and coaches vote separately on it, i.e. are there two awards? It wouldn't shock me to see Painter get the vote from the coaches and Collins from the media. Northwestern is the better 'story' because of their historical struggles, including last year, I'm just not sure how you don't give it to the guy who won the league by three games in a year when no one expected much from Purdue.
I had posted these same numbers on the iowa board as some there had diminished what Painter has done this year. Quite a few of them were pushing McCaffrey for COY(before yesterday of course). Purdue lost far more production than northwestern(or iowa) coming into this year. Numbers(lost points, rebounds, assists):
Purdue - 67.9%, 50.4%, 78.1%
northwestern - 44.2%, 44.1%, 42.9%
iowa - 48.6%, 32.4%, 43.0%
Painter truly deserves the award though I imagine some voters will vote for Collins. Reality is that Purdue was picked higher in preseason polls than northwestern, at least partly due to Painter's record(and collins' history of underperformamce). I believe it was the CBS writer who made that point in an article about Painter last week.
NW is a darling right now. Taking a team that lost 5 out of the top seven last year and being a projected middle of the pack team to enter this year, along with starting 2 freshmen and another freshmen playing a lot with essentially the whole team available next year to not only win the Big outright with a couple of games to go, but holding the number 1 ranking for quite awhile is much more significant than the NW darling. That said, Matt gets a lot of credit and Collins was on a hot seat and I suspect there exists a lean to NW for things outside the actual performances...
It'll be a close one I think. For Painter, Purdue was picked to finish in the upper half of the league but not winning the B1G. Did it with 2 freshman in the backcourt. So him winning wouldn't be surprised. Then there is Northwestern who finished 2nd and was picked to be 13th or 14th in the league. Clearly losing Pete Nance didn't hurt(seems to have hurt UNC). Collins has taken the hack the sh!t outta everyone approach and it's worked in the Big Ten. So him winning COTY wouldn't surprise me.
On the upside, consider how poor NW has been under Collins prior to this season. Collins winning the COTY award likely buys him a few more years. I anticipate a return to NW mediocrity and am not upset if his winning the award keeps him around for a while.
How many opportunities, realistically, does a NW coach get to be COTY? Collins will win it.
Opportunities implies sympathy voting...which I too expect to see.
Talor Battle made a big difference for their guards it seems. Hs came over to NW from Penn St this year as an assistant.
That's a good point. Add in that Edey only started playing basketball halfway through high school and all of that would seem to indicate some amount of coaching went into developing this team.
We can make a strong case for Painter, but I won't be disappointed if Collins wins it. Purdue got the regular season prize that really matters. I think Painter's standing in the sport is pretty well established.
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