USA Today names R.J. Barrett POTY; R.J. and Zion named 1st Team All-Americans

[DavidBenAkiva]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...ss/3207679002/

Not quite sure I agree with the player or coach of the year selections. I am 100% on board the R.J. Barrett as 1st Team All-American train. He's not a huge stretch to be put in that position. But Roy Williams as Coach of the Year? Give me a break. The only reason people think UNC is peaking is that they had the easiest schedule in the ACC. Of the top 7 teams in the conference, they only played 2 of them on the road - Duke and Louisville. I guarantee that this narrative that UNC is "peaking" wouldn't be all over the place if they had to play at UVA, at Florida State, at VA Tech, at Syracuse the way that Duke did. UVA had a similar road schedule in the ACC. What a joke. The Coach of the Year award should have gone to Chris Beard or Nate Oates or someone else.

[Lurkingdukedog]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...ss/3207679002/

Not quite sure I agree with the player or coach of the year selections. I am 100% on board the R.J. Barrett as 1st Team All-American train. He's not a huge stretch to be put in that position. But Roy Williams as Coach of the Year? Give me a break. The only reason people think UNC is peaking is that they had the easiest schedule in the ACC. Of the top 7 teams in the conference, they only played 2 of them on the road - Duke and Louisville. I guarantee that this narrative that UNC is "peaking" wouldn't be all over the place if they had to play at UVA, at Florida State, at VA Tech, at Syracuse the way that Duke did. UVA had a similar road schedule in the ACC. What a joke. The Coach of the Year award should have gone to Chris Beard or Nate Oates or someone else.

I don't think the writer did his homework. If you notice, by his article, RJ and Zion have identical scoring averages (22.9) and I think that RJs is higher.

[Steven43]

Further proof that USA Today is an embarrassing joke. There is only one National Player of the Year and that is Zion Williamson.

[UrinalCake]

Glad to see RJ get recognized for his amazing season so far. He’s been overshadowed by Zion, but in any other season he would be the favorite for NPOY. I know he gets criticized for taking too many shots, but his efficiency has improved and to put up that many points while shouldering the offensive load especially while Zion was out is just amazing. He has also been more than solid on the boards and dishing out the assists. We are really spoiled to have the two best players in the country both on our team.

[JasonEvans]

Love me some RJ, huge fan of RJ... but Zion is POY and history will look back on this pick by USA Today with laughter.

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Love me some RJ, huge fan of RJ... but Zion is POY and history will look back on this pick by USA Today with laughter.

This is a childish attempt by USA Today to be "different" and to be 'above' all the Zion hype...which is absurd...because for all the hype about Zion, that young man almost always OVER delivers. I'm happy for RJ to get the honor....but I think RJ knows who the POY is.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

This is a childish attempt by USA Today to be "different" and to be 'above' all the Zion hype...which is absurd...because for all the hype about Zion, that young man almost always OVER delivers. I'm happy for RJ to get the honor...but I think RJ knows who the POY is.

It does seem amusing to me that the rationale stated by USA Today is how RJ kept Duke afloat while their best player was out.

[flyingdutchdevil]

This is a childish attempt by USA Today to be "different" and to be 'above' all the Zion hype...which is absurd...because for all the hype about Zion, that young man almost always OVER delivers. I'm happy for RJ to get the honor...but I think RJ knows who the POY is.

Honestly, I hope RJ thinks that RJ should be POY. I understand that he and Zion are great friends, but what makes RJ special is that self-confidence and fire that we've all come to love.

[Troublemaker]

No big deal here. USA Today isn't one of the Big 6 current NPOY awards -- Naismith, AP, Wooden, USBWA, NABC, TSN -- the latter of which Zion has already captured. And I expect Zion to win the other 5 NPOYs as well.

USA Today isn't respected so we can choose to ignore (especially the COY) or perhaps just congratulate RJ.

[roywhite]

I don't think the writer did his homework. If you notice, by his article, RJ and Zion have identical scoring averages (22.9) and I think that RJs is higher.

Yeah, though fairly close; RJ finished with 22.9 ppg and Zion 22.1

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.db...CLID=210461052

regular season stats; notes and quirks:
30.2% 3-point for team, and only Justin Robinson at 4-9 is over 40%
Opponents overall FG% is under 40%
From the FT line -- Jack is best at .852; Cam and Tre are reasonably good at .759 and .776 respectively; RJ and Zion have slipped some recently -- .662 and .654 respectively
Despite poor team FT % of .690, Duke has made nearly as many FTs (518) as opponents have taken (521)
Cam and Tre have exactly the same number of rebounds for the season

[OldPhiKap]

I would rather congratulate RJ than argue why he shouldn't have gotten it. But that's just me.

RJ had a great year and has been an outstanding representative of our institution. Well done, and congratulations.

[Troublemaker]

Glad to see RJ get recognized for his amazing season so far.

I would rather congratulate RJ than argue why he shouldn't have gotten it. But that's just me.

RJ had a great year and has been an outstanding representative of our institution. Well done, and congratulations.

This is the only sane reaction, imo. It's not a major NPOY award, and despite making the wrong choice, the beneficiary is another Duke player in RJ. For me, as a Duke fan, it's therefore net neutral even though I think Zion should be NPOY.

[OldPhiKap]

This is the only sane reaction, imo. It's not a major NPOY award, and despite making the wrong choice, the beneficiary is another Duke player in RJ. For me, as a Duke fan, it's therefore net neutral even though I think Zion should be NPOY.

Duke has two NPOY's on the same team. How great is that!

[HereBeforeCoachK]

Honestly, I hope RJ thinks that RJ should be POY. I understand that he and Zion are great friends, but what makes RJ special is that self-confidence and fire that we've all come to love.

Someone on DBR posted that RJ had flat out said Zion was the best player in the country. I don't know if that is true or not, and I"m not sure who posted it and whether they were literally quoting RJ or generalizing. The way I see it, RJ's self confidence is such that he realizes Zion is the best player but that this fact takes nothing away from RJ being RJ....and takes nothing away from RJ's own greatness.

[Jeffrey]

The Coach of the Year award should have gone to Chris Beard or Nate Oates or someone else.

IMO, Tony Bennett.

[DukieInBrasil]

It does seem amusing to me that the rationale stated by USA Today is how RJ kept Duke afloat while their best player was out.

The cognitive dissonance is stunning.
I'll echo what has been said: it's great that this team has 2 NPOYs on it. I don't think RJ has had a better season than his teammate and buddy Zion, but he still had one of the all-time great seasons by a Fr.
Kudos to him for the recognition, and i hope he helps propel Duke to Natty #6!

[Troublemaker]

This is the only sane reaction, imo. It's not a major NPOY award, and despite making the wrong choice, the beneficiary is another Duke player in RJ. For me, as a Duke fan, it's therefore net neutral even though I think Zion should be NPOY.

If someone, however, were to force me to make a case for RJ as best I could (meaning I don't have to believe it, just try my hardest in a mock trial like situation), I would point out that RJ has played 345 more minutes than Zion this season. That's the equivalent of 8.6 games out of 34 games played so far, or a tad over 25%. You will often see a baseball pitcher who pitched 230 innings win the Cy Young over a pitcher that had a lower ERA / WHIP but only pitched 170 innings, for example.

Also, if you think of the regular season as basically positioning yourself seeding-wise and location-wise for the NCAA tournament, you could make the case that the main reason Duke is the overall #1 seed and in the DC regional is because of the 2-0 sweep of UVA. And RJ was MOTM in both games.

Anyway, that's my best shot at a mock trial devil's advocate defense. I think Zion should be NPOY, but I think we should congratulate RJ.

[Bay Area Duke Fan]

Duke has two NPOY's on the same team. How great is that!

Also happened in 2001 (Battier and Williams).

[DukieInKansas]

Someone on DBR posted that RJ had flat out said Zion was the best player in the country. I don't know if that is true or not, and I"m not sure who posted it and whether they were literally quoting RJ or generalizing. The way I see it, RJ's self confidence is such that he realizes Zion is the best player but that this fact takes nothing away from RJ being RJ...and takes nothing away from RJ's own greatness.

Didn't they each make videos endorsing the other for either the Wooden Award or Naismith?

[Jeffrey]

Also happened in 2001 (Battier and Williams).

Likely not to be the last similarity.