Curious to hear who people would select for their all conference teams?
The WCC puts 10 players on First Team (no idea why it isn’t only 5?). Second Team has 5 players(plus ties) , and usually around 7 on honorable mention. They also have POY, Newcomer of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, and Coach of the Year.
Scroll down, and do “Conference Only” rather than All D-1. It will give you player rankings for All WCC players based off their conference only stats. Torvik’s PRPG! stat is similar to a Wins Above Replacement Stat in Baseball.
Torvik has Podz at the top, then Shelton, Timme. So you are not crazy if you want to put Podz as your player of the year, even though Timme probably wins it. The analytics are not perfect as they have Mahaney 15th despite almost certainly being a lock for First Team. At the very least, it is an easy way to view all the WCC players in a list view with their various stats.
Santa Clara should, at worst, sweep both Newcomer categories with Podz and Heal.
I think Key could get 1st team and Carlos 2nd team. Or vice versa. It’s hard to really pick between them given that both can go for 20+ in a given night. Key gets more boards and has fewer turnovers. But Carlos gets lots of steals and has such wild explosiveness off his first step.
I don’t think Timme has had a season that deserves POY by acclamation. I would like to see Shelton and Podz get more than just Mark Few’s vote. But the safe money is on Timme to repeat. Great offensive player with stupendous footwork, but a so-so rebounder and defender.
Bennett is more deserving of COY than Timme of POY. I really think that Sendek deserves more than just Randy’s vote. But I expect the boring choices to govern here.
Defender of the Year has to be a Gael–either Bowen or Saxen. I think Saxen gets it.
My take: COY: Bennett…Few and Sendek might get a vote or two. POY: Timme. Pretty simple…he’s an All-American, no one else in the WCC is. Newcomer of the year: Podz 6th Man: Malachi Smith Defensive POY: Should be GU’s Anton Watson but will likely be a SMC player as a nod and reward to their outstanding team D. My rank order of SMC possibilities: Logan Johnson, Saxson, Bowen. Why Watson?..he can guard all 5 positions, has great hands and gets a ton of deflections and Few will tell you he is one of the best defensive players he’s ever had.
It’s tough to breakdown All-WCC squads. It’s one of the more wide open years in a long time, not many returning 1st team guys. But I’d break it down in the following 4 groups: