2007-8 PAC-10 Freshman of the Year
When considering that honor you think of highly touted PAC-10 rookies Jerryd Bayless, O.J. Mayo, Kevin Love. Well, I'm here to tell you none of the above are the PAC-10's Rookie of the Year. The conference Rookie of the Year is..... drum roll please…….. James Harden.
Consider these facts:
FG % 3PT % FT% RPG APG PPG SPG T.O.
Harden 52.6 41.3 74.4 5.2 2.8 18.0 1.9 2.5
Bayless 47.8 43.3 83.3 4.4 2.9 21 1 3.2
Love 58.3 36.6 74 11 1.8 17 .7 2
Mayo 44.1 38.4 78.6 4.5 2.9 20.1 1.5 3.8
No disrespect to Jerryd, Kevin, and O.J., but the Artesia grad is putting the ASU program back on the mainstream radar and possibly in NCAA tournament contention.
Not since Ike Diogu’s time as a Sun Devil, has ASU been this close to a berth.
Harden has helped them to rebound from a terrible season last year, in which Arizona State lost a school record 15 straight. Harden’s 25 points in an Overtime win against then ranked #7 Stanford recently has to boost his cause.
The left hander is averaging 18.0 PPG, 1.9 SPG, and 5.2 RPG. Plus, the kid is only a astonishing 18 years old and not eligible for the NBA Draft which requires the participant to be at least 19 years of age.
That means he will have to continue to put in work for ASU and make the Pac-10 a better conference than what it already is for years to come.
13 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Silas Beyman about 1 year ago
Kevin Love is having one of the best rookie seasons in the Pac-10, it's hard not to give Freshman of the Year honors to someone who's averaging a double-double in a season
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Michael Whittenberg about 1 year ago
I agree, Love is clearly the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. O.J. Mayo will be the only person competing with him for that award.
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Sean Stancill about 1 year ago
Will see later on down the road and when Harden wins, I'll simply write I told you so.
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Jeff Allen about 1 year ago
Sean, we all appreciate your love for the game. And yeah, perhaps Harden deserves some love. But you're showing your youth again when you try and make stats tell an entire story. Sports don't work that way. Just a few truths for you to consider:
Coaches vote for Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. Coaches understand the game at a far deeper level than you or I ever will. That being said, Harden might receive a vote from his own coach, but I'd be surprised if he got two votes. Kevin Love is going to win this award, and he's going to be at or near the top of the list for Pac-10 Player of the Year. Kevin Love will probably be a 1st or 2nd-team All-American. My guess is 1st-team. If I knew you personally, I'd wager any amount of money on these statements. Kevin Love is on that short list of the most advanced freshmen we've seen in the last 10-15 years. He's on the same list as Durant, Beasley, Carmelo, and Eric Gordon. He's THAT SKILLED. Coaches and analysts get this. You seemingly don't get it yet. You get stats.
You'll grow out of this stage someday.
We all expect you to come back when your predictions are proven wrong and face the masses.
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Sean Stancill about 1 year ago
Have you thought of how a player affects a team? Mayo, Bayless, and Love already joined fantastic programs that had prior NCAA Tournament berths a year ago. Last year, USC was a surprise team with Nick Young and Hackett taking the program deep into March. Collison and Affalo also went deep into the tournament and lost to eventual champions Florida. As for Arizona, they made it to the first round thanks to Chase Budinger. ASU did not, Harden is bringing the program back up to where it was years ago when Ike Diogu was there.
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Jeff Allen about 1 year ago
Conference freshman of the year awards have never taken a player's value to their team into account. It's simply awarded to who the coaches believe to be the best basketball player. Conference and National Player of the Year awards are voted on more along the lines of an MVP award where team success is considered.
It doesn't even matter - under either criteria, Love would probably win. Not to mention your own logic works against you, so you probably shouldn't be using it in the first place. If Arizona State was as bad as you said they were last year, wouldn't one assume that Harden's could come in and score right away? I mean after all, they didn't have much talent to begin with. And if UCLA was as great as you said they were last year, wouldn't one assume that Love would come in and be a good little freshman and defer to all of the returning upperclass talent? But instead, Love came in and dominated the best league in America - a league littered with NBA-caliber big men, by the way.
Like I already told you, Kevin Love is the Pac-10 Frosh of the Year, the Pac-10 Player of the Year, and a first-team All American. You'd be hard pressed to find any knowledgable basketball person to disagree with those statements. Some might argue that he belongs on the 2nd All-American team, but that's where the argument would end. You're merely continuing to demonstrate your inability to see beyond won-loss record and offensive statistics. Sure, offensive stats are a product of one's athletic ability. But on the college level, there are so many other driving factors. If offensive stats were so important, why do the nation's scoring leaders so frequently come from crummy teams that never win jack?
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Jeff Allen about 1 year ago
Not to mention that national scoring leaders rarely even get a sniff from NBA teams, let alone go on to successful NBA careers.
Statistics only tell a small part of the story, young buck.
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Sean Stancill about 1 year ago
You bit off more than you can chew with the statement Pac-10 Player of the Year, have you heard of Darren Collison teammate of Kevin Love? Also you might want to hear about 5'7 Joey Porter in Oregon. Secondly, Love isn't even the best big man on his team, you can make a case for Luc Richard and Mata-Real. Thirdly, I wouldn't say the Pac-10 is the toughest conference in the world. Conferences like the Big East and the ACC could show up the Pac-10 and will come tourney time. And lastly, I'm sticking with James Harden as Freshman of the Year in his conference.
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Lew Wright about 1 year ago
Couldn't agree with you more Jeff. Stats only tell a part (not necessarily small, though) of the story. Watching the three players mentioned here over the course of the year, I believe that Sean has it right. Though Harden's stats are impressive, it's the intensity and competitive drive that makes him the class of the three. Not to take anything away from the tremendous presence of either Love or Mayo, Harden's influence over the other four Sun Devils on the court with him is palpable. Yes, he does make his teammates better players. And Harden has done so without the benefit of a winning tradition/culture. Sure credit has to be given to Coach Sendek, but the success of this team is all about the contribution and talent of Harden.
Having said all that, Jeff is probably right about Love getting the love of the selection committee. Because all three player are truly outstanding talents, a very good case could be argued for each.
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Jeff Allen about 1 year ago
No need to drag this on any further, but I'll just leave it at what I've said.
Love wins Freshman of the Year in the Pac-10 - if THIS doesn't happen, email me your address and I'll mail you a hundred bucks.
Love wins Player of the Year in the Pac-10.
Love is a first or second team All-American.
I'm not saying you have to agree with it - hell I'm not even necessarily saying that I agree with it (although in this specific case, I do) - I'm just telling you it's going to happen. So brace yourself for a letdown. If you don't think it's going to happen, then you simply don't pay attention to what coaches, scouts and analysts actually have to say.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
I agree that all four players have had incredible seasons this year as freshmen, and that all with all four you could make a case for PAC-10 Freshman Player of the Year. However, Love would be at the bottom of the list in my opinion. A player surrounded by as much talent as Love is at UCLA, will have a much easier time putting up numbers compared to a team like ASU who has been terrible since Ike Diogu. You could make the same argument for Mayo at USC and Bayless at U of A. None of these teams are playing at the same caliber as UCLA. Because Harden, Bayless and Mayo are not playing amongst the type of talent as Love, opposing teams are able to focus more defensively on them by doubling and sometimes triple teaming them. Other teams can not give as much attention to Love for fear of getting beat by one of the many other talents on the floor. If I had a vote, I would give it to either Harden or Mayo as they are the best of the four at creating their own shot and taking over a game. If I had to choose one...and this is difficult to say as I am about as big an ASU fan as they come...but I would give it to Mayo. That guy is just plain good I'm sorry.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
Kevin just won the 2008 pac 10 freshman of the year award.............. and the pac-10 player of the year award.
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Jeff Allen about 1 year ago
Well, it was pretty obvious that was going to happen.
At least, it should've been obvious....
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