Cunningham trumps Matthews
Mar. 9, 2009 10:00 a.m.
Marquette Golden Eagles senior guard Wesley Matthews fell short in his bid for another individual honor on Monday, as Villanova senior forward Dante Cunningham won the Big East's Most Improved Player award.
Matthews, who finished fifth in the league in scoring at 18.5 points per game and first in free throws attempted with 224, was named second team all-Big East on Sunday along with Cunningham.
In other awards news, Connecticut junior center was named Defensive Player of the Year for the second consecutive season -- no surprise after he averaged 4.5 blocked shots per game for the Huskies.
Also, Villanova sophomore guard Corey Fisher won Sixth Man of the Year, and West Virginia senior guard Alex Ruoff won the Sportsmanship Award.
As always, the awards were voted on by the league's 16 coaches, who were not permitted to vote for their own players.
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What is the Sportsmanship award based on? I can't believe one of our guys wasn't in the running for that.
Well based on how much Huggins stresses sportsmanship for the opponents, I find it hard to believe the whole WV team wasn't at the top. Also with the way our guys laugh during wins I'm sure we were near the bottom.
edit: to put in teal
man i was just going to bring this up. how did Wes NOT win the most improved award. he had a bigger jump in BOTH scoring and rebounding than dante cunningham, and was also up significantly in almost every other category:
PPG RPG APG SPG FG% FT% 3P%
Wes 07-08 11.3 4.4 1.7 1.0 43% 79% 31%
Wes 08-09 18.5 5.4 2.5 1.3 50% 82% 39%
Dante 07-08 10.4 6.5 1.1 1.3 54% 69% 0%
Dante 08-09 16.4 7.3 1.2 1.4 55% 69% 0%
Shame that we didn't beat out Nova for the 4 seed, as I suspect that may have cost Wes. While Cunningham certainly did improve a great deal this season, Wes had larger jumps in scoring (7.2 ppg increase vs. 6.0), rebounding (1.0 rpg increase vs. 0.8) and assists (0.8 apg increase vs. 0.1) than Cunningham did.
Edit - looks like dwaderoy2004 beat me to it.
Ruoff, or for that matter, any WV player, sportsman of the year? For what, most undetected thrown elbows and pushes? What have I missed here?
Quote from: ATWizJr on March 09, 2009, 01:22:50 PM
Ruoff, or for that matter, any WV player, sportsman of the year? For what, most undetected thrown elbows and pushes? What have I missed here?
No kidding; might as well give Devendorf the humanitarian award for his work with the "pimp slap" this year.
Also, Cunningham over Wes has to be an even bigger slap in the face than all the pundits screaming we were overrated the whole year (although that argument has gained more merit).
I like Cunningham - good, solid player. If he and Matthews split the Most Improved and Sportsmanship awards, I'd be fine iwth it. I just don't see how Ruoff won anything - was it his 0-fer against Lville on Sat. night?
I guess it depends on how you look at it. Did Matthews improve or did he just get an opportunity in a better system for him? I can't speculate on what BEast coaches think when they vote but this would be about the only logical explanation I could think of.
OR did he get all of his best games against the non conference competition?
He hasn't looked nearly as good in the last few weeks.
Quote from: Hards_Alumni on March 09, 2009, 03:28:50 PM
OR did he get all of his best games against the non conference competition?
He hasn't looked nearly as good in the last few weeks.
I disagree. Matthews seems to be the only one on our team who can consistently create his own shots. He is big enough to absorb contact and still get to the rim and his FT shooting has been huge for us this year. In fact, that may be the single most overlooked factor of the season. Matthews' ability to get to the line and knock down shots has won/kept us in a few games this year.
Quote from: dwaderoy2004 on March 09, 2009, 12:12:55 PM
man i was just going to bring this up. how did Wes NOT win the most improved award. he had a bigger jump in BOTH scoring and rebounding than dante cunningham, and was also up significantly in almost every other category:
PPG RPG APG SPG FG% FT% 3P%
Wes 07-08 11.3 4.4 1.7 1.0 43% 79% 31%
Wes 08-09 18.5 5.4 2.5 1.3 50% 82% 39%
Dante 07-08 10.4 6.5 1.1 1.3 54% 69% 0%
Dante 08-09 16.4 7.3 1.2 1.4 55% 69% 0%
Wow. Looks like a no-brainer to me.
The thing is, coaches probably spent a greater portion of their practices prepping for Cunningham than they did prepping for Matthews and that might have contributed to coaches voting.
I would imagine preparing for MU would be a lot of protecting the ball and a lot of stopping McNeal, keeping James out of the lane, and keeping a body on Hayward since he is our only true rebounder. Teams probably did take Wes seriously, but only after other players. Cunningham was someone on coaches' minds more.
I really want to face Nova now...and watch Wes school the MIP!
Quote from: 77ncaachamps on March 09, 2009, 09:01:15 PM
I really want to face Nova now...and watch Wes school the MIP!
Now THAT would be so sweet. . .!!!!
GO MARQUETTE!!
Didn't Ruoff throw an elbow at James and get called for it in our game against them this year?
Never any love for the new Big East teams...
Beyond the numbers, Cunningham this season added a reliable mid-range jump shot- a totally new aspect to his offensive game that was readily apparenty to anyone who watched Nova play and turned him into a serious scoring threat. Commentators have been discussing it throughout the season during every Nova TV game. Matthews' numbers may have improved but I'm not sure he has brought any readily apparrent, completely new facets to his game this year. Just saying.
Quote from: Villacats on March 10, 2009, 07:22:52 AM
Cunningham this season added a reliable mid-range jump shot- a totally new aspect to his offensive game.
Matthews' numbers may have improved but I'm not sure he has brought any readily apparent, completely new facets to his game this year. Just saying.
Reliable? That shot was a damn near lock every time he put it up. Impressive. And he'll hit five of those on Thursday against us.
I think what Matthews improved upon was being a role player for three seasons under restriction from the former coach to a star this season who became the second option behind McNeal. Lot of improvement there.
Quote from: Villacats on March 10, 2009, 07:22:52 AM
Beyond the numbers, Cunningham this season added a reliable mid-range jump shot- a totally new aspect to his offensive game that was readily apparenty to anyone who watched Nova play and turned him into a serious scoring threat. Commentators have been discussing it throughout the season during every Nova TV game. Matthews' numbers may have improved but I'm not sure he has brought any readily apparrent, completely new facets to his game this year. Just saying.
i guess man, but even with his new-fangled jump shot he still couldn't outscore Matthews this year. Across the board, COMPLETELY, Matthews had better numbers. And it would be apparent to anyone that watched Marquette play this year that Matthews put a ton of time last offseason in perfecting his own jump shot, which produced an 8% increase in his 3 point shooting percentage, in addition to a 7% increase in his overall FG%.
Just saying.