MORGANTOWN -
It is likely the Big East Player of the Year will either be
West Virginia's Kevin Jones or Marquette's Jae Crowder.
The Big East picks the Player of the Year from the Big East
First Team. Crowder was the only player to receive a unanimous selection to the
first team. Jones was a first team selection, but not unanimous meaning that at
least one Big East Head Coach left Jones off the first team on his respective
ballot.
WVU Head Coach Bob Huggins took to twitter to vent his
frustration, "Can't
imagine which Big East coach didn't think Kevin Jones was worthy of a vote for
1st team All Big East. Only a handful of players in the storied Big East have
done what KJ has."
Huggins is right. Jones is just the third Big East player to lead the
league in scoring and rebounding in all games. Walter Berry of St. John's
averaged 23 points and 11.1 rebounds while Troy Murphy of Notre Dame averaged
22.7 points and 10.3 rebounds.
Jones is also just the third Big East player to lead the league in
scoring and rebounding in conference games only. Notre Dame's Luke Harangody did it in 2008 and 2009 with
Troy Murphy accomplishing the feat in 2000.
Jones also appears at or near the top of several national statistics. He
leads the nation in offensive rebounds per game. Jones is also second in
double-doubles, third in field goals made, fifth in rebounds per game and 15th
in points per game.
Let's compare Kevin Jones and Jae Crowder.
| NAME |
POINTS PER GAME |
REB. PER GAME |
FG% |
3PT% |
FT% |
BLOCKS |
DOUBLE-DOUBLES |
MIN PER GAME |
| KEVIN JONES (WVU) |
20.0 |
11.2 |
51.5 |
28.2 |
77.4 |
33 |
20 |
38.1 |
| JAE CROWDER (MARQUETTE) |
17.6 |
7.9 |
51.2 |
36.1 |
74.3 |
32 |
11 |
32.8 |
Other notes on the two players. Neither one of them get into
foul trouble very often. Jones averaged just over one foul per game, which is
amazing for a forward. Crowder averaged 2.6 fouls per game.
Both players had one teammate average double figures in
scoring. Crowder did not lead his team in scoring. That honor went to Darius
Johnson-Odom.
Crowder played with just three freshmen on the Marquette
roster. Jones had eight freshmen teammates at WVU.
It will be interesting to see which of these two players
receive the award. Keep an eye on Huggins twitter account if Jones does not win
it. Huggins has been petitioning Jones for Big East Player of the Year
throughout the season.
"If you take KJ off our team, we probably don't win a game,"
Huggins said. "You can't say that about anyone else in our league."
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