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IWB
03-05-2012, 04:03 PM
Big East awards and an Irritation...

Today the Big East came out with their other awards. Notre Dame's Jack Cooley was the Most Improved, Syracuse Dion Waiters was the 6th Man of the Year, Georgetown's Jason Clark won the Sportsmanship award and Syracuse's Fab Melo was the Defensive player of the year. There is no question that melo's inside presence forces defenses to adjust, and normally I would not question that selection, but let's take a look at defensive statistics.....

Fab Melo: D-Rebs - 56/3.7 Blocks - 56/3.7 Steals - 7/0.5
Crowder: D-Rebs - 119/6.6 Blocks - 22/1.2 Steals - 53/2.9

There is no question that Melo is a huge presence defensively, but looking at the measurable defensive stats....

Defensive Rebounds: Crowder finished second in defensive rebounding in the conference, only 2 defensive rebounds out of first. All in all, Crowder averaged more defensive rebounds in the Big East than Melo averaged with offensive and defensive combined.

Blocked Shots: Melo did win the blocked shot title, and 3.7 is impressive. Crowder finished 12th in conference. Major props to Melo.

Steals: Jae Crowder led the Big East in steals with 53, or 2.9 per game. Fab Melo totaled 7, just a bit less than half a steal per game.

No, Crowder doesn't need to win everything, but he certainly put up better numbers than Melo defensively. I know this scoring system is worthless, but....

Rebounds - your team retains the ball. Steals - your team retains the ball. Blocked shots - 50/50 on who gets the ball. With that in mind, assess 1 point each for rebounds and steals and 1/2 point for a blocked shot - Score? Crowder 183 points, Melo 96. Almost twice as much output on the defensive end.

Again, I know Melo is a force, but 1st in the Big East in steals, second in defensive rebounds, that is certainly worthy of some mention.

Gato78
03-05-2012, 04:48 PM
Melo altered a lot of shots and caused coaches to game plan his defense. Cannot argue with Melo EXCEPT he was suspended for grades for a period of time which should be figured in.

IWB
03-05-2012, 04:55 PM
Agree, as I said, Melo did force teams to alter their game, but for someone who is a 7'0 260 lb space eating wide body, 3.7 rebounds per game is not exactly a whole heck of a lot. Again, not saying Crowder should have gotten the award, but he certainly deserved mention.