Missouri Basketball: Marcus Denmon Deserves More Wooden Award Hype

Marcus Denmon of the Missouri Tigers has been outstanding so far in the 2011-12 season.

The Tigers are off to a 9-0 start thanks in large part to the effort of the senior guard.

Denmon is doing it all for Mizzou this year, leading the team with 21.3 points per game. He’s also averaging 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game and shooting 91.7 percent from the free throw line.

The problem is that Denmon isn’t getting much hype for the Wooden Award, given annually to the best player in college basketball.

That’s in large part because he goes about his business so quietly. You are always surprised when you see how many points Denmon had in the last game. It seems like he’s putting up 10-12 points a game.

Then, when you see the box score, he’s put up 20-25 points. In his last five games, he’s scored 18, 13, 31, 28 and 22 points. It doesn't seem like he's having a great game sometimes, but the stats beg to differ.

Denmon ranks 11th in the country in points per game, 26th in three-point percentage, 33rd in free throw percentage and 25th in true shooting percentage.

He’s having an amazing season and deserves more credit than he’s been given thus far.

If he can continue to keep playing at this level during Big 12 games, it’ll get harder and harder for national media to keep ignoring him.

He hasn't shied away from Mizzou's toughest tests of the season so far. Against Villanova, he had 28 points. Against Cal, he had 18 points. And against Notre Dame, he had 26 points.

Based on those numbers, it's hard not to think he'll put up similar numbers against Baylor, Kansas and Texas A&M. He's a shooter, and he gets his points no matter how tough the defense is.

And, as shown above, he gets his points in a very efficient manner. He's not a high volume shooter that hurts his team by shooting 30 times a game to get 25 points.

Jared Sullinger, Anthony Davis, Terrence Jones, Harrison Barnes, Austin Rivers and others had better watch out this year. Denmon is one of the best players in the country right now and could steal the Wooden Award before it's all said and done.