As I was browsing by the team's media guides, the box scores of games, and the play-by-plays of the first round games, I found something that surprised me... a press release of the United States Basketball Writer's Association men's All-American selections. Then I found something that did more than surprise me, it shocked me. Why are no Kansas players on the USBWA Men's All- American list? The three other 1-seeds all have one player on the first team. North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough, UCLA's Kevin Love and Memphis' Chris Douglas- Roberts are all on the first team. The other first place team in the Big 12, Texas, and third place team, Kansas State each have one with D.J. Augustin and Michael Beasley both on the first team. Granted no player on the Jayhawks is Michael Beasley or Tyler Hansbrough or D.J. Augustin. If no player on Kansas is as good as any one them, then why I am still so shocked that none have made the first team or second for that matter?
Certainly Brandon Rush, Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur are better players than Shan Foster of Vanderbilt or D.J. White of Indiana. Am I right? I assume that the voters of the USBWA are more educated on this issue than myself. However, assuming has made an ass out of you and me before, so I could very well be wrong, or do I mean right. I just don't believe after watching Rush, Chalmers and Arthur for two years now that not one of them is a top ten player in the country in the minds of the media. Collegehoops.net currently has Arthur ranked as the 10th best NBA prospect, while Love is only the 15th. Maybe Arthur just has a higher ceiling in the NBA, I don't know I'm not a scout. Arthur pulled down seven boards went eight for 10 from the floor and scored 17 points yesterday versus Portland State. Yes, the Vikings were a 16 seed, but it's impressive none-the-less. Arthur has even outshined Love on the college courts this season all ready. He scored 16 points, gathered nine rebounds and went for six for nine from the court against Texas in Kansas' biggest game of the season, with a one seed on the line. Is that not worthy of All-American Status? Kevin Love only tallied 11 points and six rebounds versus the Longhorns earlier this year in a loss. Yes, Love has matured and improved a lot throughout the season and Arthur can be inconsistent, but I'm going to try to make a case for Arthur anyway.
Darrell Arthur dunks ThursdayPhoto:KU Athletics
First off, I must acknowledge a few things. I'm attacking someone I respect and believe is deserving of the honor, in Kevin Love. If you take a look at his wikipedia he has pretty much been racking in major accolades and awards since the day he stepped onto a basketball court. Secondly, I'm attacking someone named to the first team so that if I do succeed in my objective there is no question Arthur deserves to be there. If I fail, even though my pride or my fanhood as ESPN has so cleverly marketed it as, refuses to let me accept that as a possibility, I will still have a secondary objective out there. This secondary motive is my belief that if I can make you believe it is a close of enough argument between Arthur and Love, then I can make you believe that Arthur must certainly deserve to be placed on the second team. I kind of ruined the concept of that psychology by telling you my back up plan, but I've never been one for keeping secrets.
With that said I must face the difficult task that lies in front of me. Not only is the my first blog, but I must make Arthur look as good as a player the national media has been hyping up to you all year long. I'm lucky I've never been an individual to back down from a challenge. I could talk at two, I think I was potty trained sometime around there and even though I'm not sure if that's impressive or not, my point is that it was hard work but i did it anyway.
Now I have to put off my procrastination and attack Love with the force of a german blitzkrieg. I like beginning and closing my arguments with a cheap shot and put the facts in between the two. It's a strategy that's worked for me in the past so I've stuck with it.
Cheap Shot #1: Kevin Love has the better name. Now Shady is a pretty good nickname and King Arthur isn't a bad gimmick, but he just can't compete with the pure flowing three syllable marketing freight train of a name that Kevin should thank his parents for everyday.
Now I'll put out some stats that I feel are relevant. These stats are out of Arthur's and Love's control, however I feel like they affect the media and how they interpret the talent level of each player.
Both UCLA and Kansas are great teams. Both have a great starting five. However, a contrast most certainly exists when you look at whose sitting on each teams bench. UCLA has four players averaging double figures with Love leading the way with 17.1 points per game, but after that only one more Bruin contributes significant points. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, who's name is certainly not as easy to market as Kevin Love's, is averaging 8.8 points per game. I'll leave the Marketing of Moute's name to ESPN. After Moute the most significant contributer is Lorenzo Mata-Real with 3.2 points per game. Even though after the starting five, the Bruins still have four players playing double digit minutes they don't take very many shots.
In contrast, Kansas has six players averaging 23 minutes or more a game and two more averaging double digits. Like UCLA, they have four players averaging double figures, led by Arthur with 13.1 points per game. However, Kansas has three players averaging 7.3 points per game or better. These three players, after Kansas' top four scorer's, average 24.1 points per game compared to the Bruin's next three who average 15.1 points per game. That's an extra nine points per game. If you distribute those leftover points equally among the Jayhawks' top four scorers Arthur's points per game would increase to 15.4 points per game. That would lessen the gap between Love and Arthur to just 1.7 points per game.
Some similarities between Arthur and Love definitely exist. Both players are part of a four-big man rotation, although Love averages 29.2 minutes compared to Arthur's 23.7 minutes. You could argue that the difference in time played would give Arthur more points, but you could also argue that his tendency to get into foul trouble has robbed himself of those minutes. The shooting percentage of both players is similar as well. Arthur shoots 54.1 percent from the floor, while Love shoots 55.7 percent.
However, there are some areas where Love and Arthur are very different. Love either finds a way to get to the line much more often than Arthur or the Pac-10 officials call games much tighter than the ones from the Big 12. I haven't watched enough Pac-10 basketball to know the answer to that, but Love has taken 127 more free throw shots than Arthur. Shooting 76.4% from the charity strip Love has 103 more points than Arthur does at the line. Now this could be a merit of Love's skill to draw fouls and more than likely is, but even if Arthur even took 50 more free throw shots his average points per game would go up one, to 16.4 and now the gap between the two is less than a point.
Cheap Shot #2: Kevin Love is a freshman. The media is in love with freshmen this year. Since players have been forced to play their freshman season, more talent has come in and I think the fact that Love is a diaper dandy makes his stats seem all the more impressive.
Now I must lay down my closing argument, because quite frankly this blog has gotten too long. I could draw out more stats and say what hypothetically could be but I don't think that will really prove anymore to you than I already have. My maIn point is that there are too many factors that go into account when making a decision like this, for anyone to really be sure if they made the right decision. I think the fact that Kansas is such an unselfish team, something the media has written and talked about all year long, really hurts them. When voting the USBWA should look at that. They might have factored that it in and they might not have but I can't remember the last time a three loss team from the Big 12 didn't have a first or second team All-American on their roster. In fact in the 12 years of Big 12 basketball there have been four teams that have finished a season with four losses or less. All four of those teams have had at least one player that was a first or second team All-American. Two of them had two players on a first or second team. This year's Jayhawk squad will finish with no more than four losses and has the chance to break the school record for wins, still it will have no All-Americans. Your honor I rest my case.
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