Bruce Pearl believes the best player on the best team should be named conference player of the year.
The Southeastern Conference’s best team is easier to find than Pearl in an orange jacket. Tennessee owns the highest ranking, the best RPI and a one-game lead in the SEC race with one week remaining.
But how do you determine the best player among a group that seems intent on making each other the best? A group that prefers assists to accolades? A group consumed by leading the team to a championship instead of leading the team in scoring?
Precedent exists for this kind of situation. And it didn’t involve the unselfish team winning individual awards.
“I think our players would rather have an SEC championship than worrying about one guy being head and shoulders above the others,” Pearl said.
Al Horford, Corey Brewer and Joakim Noah helped Florida to a second straight SEC championship last season. They went in the first nine picks of the NBA draft. They were considered one of the best trios in NCAA history.
None of them was SEC player of the year. That went to Vanderbilt’s Derrick Byars.
Of course, the Gators claimed another national title.
Another Vanderbilt sharpshooter might win the award this season. A look at the top four candidates for league MVP:
F Tyler Smith, Tennessee: the Versatile One
A “best” player, as Pearl suggests, may not exist on the Vols. But one Vol is certainly better at more aspects of the game. Tyler Smith might not earn consideration for the award because he averages 13.4 points per game, which is 25th in the league. But find a player who does more for his team.
He’s the Vols’ leading rebounder, grabbing more than even Vanderbilt center A.J. Ogilvy. He leads the team in shooting percentage. And he’s the Smith who leads Tennessee in assists, not Ramar Smith the point guard. Also, Tyler shoots 71.2 percent from the free-throw line on a team that is, at times, woeful from the stripe.
Opposing coaches say they don’t have the personnel to match this Smith, who possesses a guard’s quickness with a forward’s height. Any attempt to focus on him leaves Chris Lofton or JaJuan Smith open, and they’re Player of the Year candidates as well.
But 24 SEC players score more points, so Smith might settle for a conference championship.
“The guys that impact winning the most aren’t necessarily the guys who score the most points,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said. “We as coaches have a different perspective. And I don’t know a guy in the league that impacts the game more than Tyler Smith. He does it in a lot of different ways — passing, scoring, rebounding and hustle plays.”
G Shan Foster, Vanderbilt: the Shooter
The Commodores’ best player is also their best performer in practice. He gives the most effort on defense. He even calls coach Kevin Stallings after a bad practice to make sure he’s not still mad.
Few stars are their teams’ best practice players. Even fewer actually improve on their performance in practice during critical games.
“Shan, when the game comes around, his performance increases,” Stallings said. “He’s one of those rare guys that his productivity increases when the games begin. And that’s not because of a lack of work in practice. I told our team and our staff we were very fortunate to have a guy who is a prolific scorer, earned lots of accolades and comes out and tries to defend as hard as anybody on our team every single day.”
And those critical games? He scored 32 against then-No. 1 Tennessee last week.
Most college basketball fans figured the SEC’s best 3-point shooter would reside in the state of Tennessee. They didn’t figure the location would be Nashville. Foster is shooting 47 percent from the 3-point line, tops in the conference and well ahead of Tennessee’s Lofton. He’s also first in points per game with 19.8.
“I’m lucky to have him,” Stallings said.
G Jamont Gordon, Mississippi State: the Pro
He’s a point guard who creates shots by driving to the paint and moving defenders out of his way. He’s a muscular man-child who looks like a linebacker but leads the team in assists and made 3-pointers. He’s a guard who averages 6.2 rebounds per game.
There’s no player quite like Gordon. Literally. Last season, he was the only Division I player in the country to average more than 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists per game. This year, Gordon ranks fifth in scoring, 16th in rebounding and third in assists among SEC players.
He does so much, so often, that a performance like 24 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists can go unnoticed.
It happened to Auburn’s Jeff Lebo.
“I thought he was having an OK game against us,” Lebo said. “Then you look at the stat sheet and see 24, 13 and eight. That’s what real players do. You don’t notice it happening at the time.”
Point guard isn’t Gordon’s natural position, and that’s obvious by his high turnover ratio. He’ll also need to improve his perimeter shooting to become an effective NBA player.
But several SEC coaches recommended Gordon for the SEC’s Player of the Year award. But what about Lofton? Or South Carolina’s Devan Downey? How about Foster?
“Jamont,” Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said, “is ahead of that class.”
G Ramel Bradley, Kentucky: the Glue
One by one, starter after starter, Kentucky’s players limped to the bench. They missed practice. They did interviews on crutches, explaining aching body parts and surgeries and missed time. The Wildcats’ uniforms could have been mistaken for street clothes. Jodie Meeks. Derrick Jasper. Joe Crawford. And, finally, Patrick Patterson lost for the season.
One player held the team together, ran practice with backups and kept Kentucky in contention for an NCAA tournament berth. Ironically, the player very few are talking about for Player of the Year does the most talking of all.
Kentucky point guard Ramel Bradley backed up the talk this year, averaging 15.9 points per game and leading the team in assists. And he took over when the Wildcats’ season flirted with irrelevance.
Bradley led the team in scoring only twice during Kentucky’s 5-6 start. So he rattled off six straight games with 20 points or more. He missed only one of 255 game minutes in January. He scored 10 points in the final 3:17 to beat Tennessee in Lexington. He scored seven points in the final 41.5 seconds to hold off South Carolina. He defends the opponent’s best perimeter scorer.
“Let me put it this way,” South Carolina coach Dave Odom said, “if you lose a Patrick Patterson, you better have a Ramel Bradley on your basketball team.”
Odom, Georgia’s Dennis Felton and Florida’s Billy Donovan all said Bradley deserved SEC Player of the Year consideration.
“It’s not going to be easy to pick these postseason honors,” Felton said, “but Ramel’s had a special year. He’s carried that team.”
