2018 men's basketball All-America teams

[jimsumner]

Bagley makes USBWA first-team

2017-18 USBWA MEN'S ALL-AMERICA TEAM FIRST TEAM
F Deandre Ayton, Arizona (7-1, 250, Fr., Nassau, Bahamas)
7th Wildcat to earn First Team All-America; District IX, Pac-12 Player of the Year
F Marvin Bagley III, Duke (6-11, 234, Fr., Phoenix, Ariz.)
3rd Duke Freshman to earn First Team All-America; District III, ACC Player of the Year
G Jalen Brunson, Villanova (6-3, 190, Jr., Lincolnshire, Ill.)
4th Wildcat to earn First Team All-America; District II, Big East Player of the Year
G Devonté Graham, Kansas (6-2, 185, Sr., Raleigh, N.C.)
9th All-American from Kansas since 2009; District IV, Big 12 Player of the Year
G Trae Young, Oklahoma (6-2, 180, Fr., Norman, Okla.)
2nd First-Team All-American in 3 years from Oklahoma; Wayman Tisdale Award winner

2017-18 USBWA MEN'S ALL-AMERICA TEAM SECOND TEAM
F Keita Bates-Diop, Ohio State (6-7, 225, Jr., Normal, Ill.)
19th All-American from Ohio State; District V, Big Ten Player of the Year
G Trevon Bluiett, Xavier (6-6, 198, Sr., Indianapolis, Ind.)
Third All-America selection from Xavier (first since 2003); First Team All-Big East
G/F Miles Bridges, Michigan State (6-7, 225, So., Flint, Mich.)
Third Spartan All-American since 2013; First Team All-Big Ten
G Keenan Evans, Texas Tech (6-3, 190, Sr., Richardson, Texas)
2nd Red Raider All-America selection; District VII Player of the Year; First Team All-Big 12
C Jock Landale, Saint Mary's (6-11, 255, Sr., Victoria, Australia)
First Gael selected All-America since 1961 (Tom Meschery); West Coast Conference Player of the Year

[JasonEvans]

So, who is going to be POY? I could see any of Graham, Bagley, Young, or Brunson winning it. Oh, and Ayton is absolutely the 5th All-American alongside those guys. I think they are clearly the 5 best players this season.

[CDu]

So, who is going to be POY? I could see any of Graham, Bagley, Young, or Brunson winning it. Oh, and Ayton is absolutely the 5th All-American alongside those guys. I think they are clearly the 5 best players this season.

My guess is Brunson or Bagley.

[FerryFor50]

My guess is Brunson or Bagley.

Probably Brunson, given Bagley missed some games with injury and Nova had a better overall season.

[CDu]

Probably Brunson, given Bagley missed some games with injury and Nova had a better overall season.

Yeah, Brunson would seem to be the frontrunner. Not that I think he should be, but he probably is.

[FerryFor50]

Yeah, Brunson would seem to be the frontrunner. Not that I think he should be, but he probably is.

If Bagley hadn't missed those games, I think he'd have been it. Probably didn't help that Duke *appeared* to play better without him in some cases.

[Owen Meany]

FWIW, Trae Young is not a Naismith finalist.

[Truth&Justise]

I posted my thoughts in another thread, but I think it should be Young.

I was struck by the number of recent articles that seem to be framed as, essentially, "Why someone other than Trae Young should win NPOY." It makes me think we're discounting Young for all the wrong reasons. People want to punish him because we're upset ESPN focuses too much on him, or think his "narrative" got stale, or because we think seniors ought to win awards, or because his second half of the season was worse than his impossibly impressive first half.

We're overthinking this. He's leading the country in scoring. He's leading the country in assists. His team fell apart down the stretch, but mostly because other teams have gone all out to stop him and have forced his teammates to step up. They haven't. Oklahoma probably didn't deserve to be in the tournament, but Trae Young has had a season for the record books.

Let's just recognize he has had an amazing individual season.

[fraggler]

I posted my thoughts in another thread, but I think it should be Young.

I was struck by the number of recent articles that seem to be framed as, essentially, "Why someone other than Trae Young should win NPOY." It makes me think we're discounting Young for all the wrong reasons. People want to punish him because we're upset ESPN focuses too much on him, or think his "narrative" got stale, or because we think seniors ought to win awards, or because his second half of the season was worse than his impossibly impressive first half.

We're overthinking this. He's leading the country in scoring. He's leading the country in assists. His team fell apart down the stretch, but mostly because other teams have gone all out to stop him and have forced his teammates to step up. They haven't. Oklahoma probably didn't deserve to be in the tournament, but Trae Young has had a season for the record books.

Let's just recognize he has had an amazing individual season.

His raw stats are definitely impressive, but tempered by his inefficiency, high turnovers, and the fact that he has the ball all the time. He also closed out the last third of the season losing the majority of the games. I think he has gotten the appropriate recognition for what he has done, but don't think he is POY material. Results matter, and both he and his team got worse.

[Truth&Justise]

His raw stats are definitely impressive, but tempered by his inefficiency, high turnovers, and the fact that he has the ball all the time. He also closed out the last third of the season losing the majority of the games. I think he has gotten the appropriate recognition for what he has done, but don't think he is POY material. Results matter, and both he and his team got worse.

I guess I just disagree about how much team success should matter. Virginia has unquestionably been the best team, but there aren't any Wahoos I'd consider for NPOY (or even first or second team all-american). But Young has had an incredible season.

And if we're taking team record into account, I'm curious how bad Oklahoma would have been without him.

[jv001]

It seems most of the media says Ayton is the best player in the country. If he is, why wouldn't he be NPOY?

I'm hoping Marvin is hearing all the hoopla going to Ayton and plays like his pants are on fire. Well, under control. GoDuke!

[Ian]

I guess I just disagree about how much team success should matter. Virginia has unquestionably been the best team, but there aren't any Wahoos I'd consider for NPOY (or even first or second team all-american). But Young has had an incredible season.

And if we're taking team record into account, I'm curious how bad Oklahoma would have been without him.

They were 2-8 their last 10 games, how much worse could they have been? In those 10 games he shot 35% from the field, 25.5% from 3 and averaged 7 assist 5 turnovers a game. For the season in B12 play he shot 32.8% from 3. He was great in the first half of the season, but by the 2nd half he turned into a trigger happy one dimensional gunner. Oklahoma's record mirrored his performance.

[SavDukeGrad]

FWIW, Trae Young is not a Naismith finalist.

I was going to post this very thing - the four finalist for the Naismith award were announced today, and they are Bagley, Ayton, Brunson, and Graham. My heart is pulling for Bagley, but my head fears it will be Brunson.

[CDu]

It seems most of the media says Ayton is the best player in the country. If he is, why wouldn't he be NPOY?

I'm hoping Marvin is hearing all the hoopla going to Ayton and plays like his pants are on fire. Well, under control. GoDuke!

Because “best player” and “PoY” don’t have to be the same thing. If they did, Shaq would have won a bunch more MVPs and so would LeBron.

I would venture that the best player often doesn’t win PoY.

That said, I agree about hoping Bagley is fired up to dominate in the tourney.

[jv001]

Because “best player” and “PoY” don’t have to be the same thing. If they did, Shaq would have won a bunch more MVPs and so would LeBron.

I would venture that the best player often doesn’t win PoY.

That said, I agree about hoping Bagley is fired up to dominate in the tourney.

Sort of like National Coach of the Year, now how many times has our GOAT won the award? Not many. I'll never understand that. GoDuke!

[sagegrouse]

Sort of like National Coach of the Year, now how many times has our GOAT won the award? Not many. I'll never understand that. GoDuke!

From Wikipedia:


Awards
2× Basketball Times National Coach of the Year (1986, 1997)
3× Naismith College Coach of the Year (1989, 1992, 1999)
NABC Coach of the Year (1991)
5× ACC Coach of the Year (1984, 1986, 1997, 1999, 2000)

Three national COY awards -- six wins -- all different years.

[jv001]

From Wikipedia:



Three national COY awards -- six wins -- all different years.

Thanks Sage for the info. I don't see any AP Coach of the year awards. Could that be true? GoDuke!

[kmspeaks]

Sort of like National Coach of the Year, now how many times has our GOAT won the award? Not many. I'll never understand that. GoDuke!

Unfortunately Coach of the Year has become guy who coaches the team we (the media) were most wrong about in the pre-season. I guess there are some years where I could buy the argument that K should win a bunch of games because he has a bunch of talented players on the roster but it still requires a coach to put them together and in the best position to succeed. I don't know that it's been on a National Coach of the Year level but I've been impressed this year by K's willingness and ability to switch to a zone and have it work so well.

[jv001]

Unfortunately Coach of the Year has become guy who coaches the team we (the media) were most wrong about in the pre-season. I guess there are some years where I could buy the argument that K should win a bunch of games because he has a bunch of talented players on the roster but it still requires a coach to put them together and in the best position to succeed. I don't know that it's been on a National Coach of the Year level but I've been impressed this year by K's willingness and ability to switch to a zone and have it work so well.

Coach K should have won all the awards for the job he did in 2010 and most of the awards in 2015 but that's just this Duke fans opinion. GoDuke!

[sagegrouse]

Thanks Sage for the info. I don't see any AP Coach of the year awards. Could that be true? GoDuke!

If it's on the Internet, it must be true. Actually, the K bio is probably a Duke production with a few edges added to make it appear more candid.

K won one and only one national coach of the year award in each of six years -- 1986, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1997 and 1999. It seems peculiar there wasn't some overlap among the several COY awards: Naismith, Basketball Times, NABC, and AP (which K has never won).

[jv001]

If it's on the Internet, it must be true. Actually, the K bio is probably a Duke production with a few edges added to make it appear more candid.

K won one and only one national coach of the year award in each of six years -- 1986, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1997 and 1999. It seems peculiar there wasn't some overlap among the several COY awards: Naismith, Basketball Times, NABC, and AP (which K has never won).

I had been told that Coach K had never won AP coach of the year. How can that be? One of 2 or 3 of the greatest college basketball coaches of all-time. I guess the media looks at the caliber of players he recruits and thinks he should win. However that is not the case with the OAD players, they may be talented but they need 2 or more years to learn the college game. He should have been coach of the year in 2001, 2010 and 2015. Maybe there's just too many Uncheat media voters out there. GoDuke!