ROUNDBALL DAILY

Roundball Daily.com College Basketball Conference Player of the Year Awards

By: Kels Dayton

Here at Roundball Daily.com, we like to think of ourselves as a college basketball authority. But as supremely knowledgeable as we are, we can’t do it alone. So we surveyed over 3,300 Division 1 college basketball coaches and sports information directors and asked them for their picks on the National Player of the Year, Danny Abbott Unsung Hero Award, and the Player of the Year in each of their respective conferences. Today, we are proud to announce the winners of the Roundball Daily.com Conference Player of the Year Awards. Because that’s what you do when you’re an authority. Now, check out the well-deserving winners:

USC-Upstate's Torrey Craig was the surprise winner of our Atlantic Sun Player of the Year award. (Photo: Fox Sports.com)

America East- Darryl Partin, G, Boston University (19.6 ppg, 3.9 rpg)- The senior guard was terrific for the Terriers this season. BU finished 12-4 in the America East.

ACC- Tyler Zeller, F, University of North Carolina (16.5 ppg, 9.3 rpg)- Zeller took home 33% of the vote, and captured the award over teammates Kendall Marshall and Harrison Barnes, and North Carolina State’s C.J. Leslie.

Zeller on winning the award: “This is certainly a great honor and one that I appreciate very much. I’d like to thank my coaches and teammates, without whom I wouldn’t have had the season I did. I wish our season could have lasted a couple games longer, but it wasn’t meant to be.”

Atlantic 10- Andrew Nicholson, F, Saint Bonaventure University (18.4 ppg, 8.5 rpg)-Nicholson dominated the award voting, capturing over 75% of the vote in the A-10. Saint Joseph’s C.J. Aiken finished in second.

Atlantic Sun- Torrey Craig, F, University of South Carolina-Upstate (16.8 ppg, 7.9 rpg)-Craig was the surprise winner in the A-Sun. He led little-known upstart USC-Upstate to a 13-5 record in the conference, which was good enough for a second-place tie with Mercer.

Big East- Jae Crowder, F, Marquette University (17.4 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 2.1 apg)-Crowder edged West Virginia’s Kevin Jones in a tight race, recieving 38% of the vote.

High Point's Nick Barbour was another small-conference surprise winner, beating out J.P. Primm and Matt Dickey of UNC-Asheville. (Photo: High Point University Campus Chronicle)

Big Twelve- Thomas Robinson, F, Kansas University (17.9 ppg, 11.8 rpg)- Robinson won the Big 12 Player of the Year by a wide margin and finished second in the voting for National Player of the Year (28.2%).

Big Ten- Draymond Green, F, Michigan State University (16.1 ppg, 10.4 rpg, 3.6 apg)- Green won the Big Ten POY award over Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger and Wisconsin’s Jordan Taylor. He also finished third in the voting for National Player of the Year (13.1%).

Big Sky- Damian Lillard, G, Weber State University (24.5 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 4.0 apg)- The junior finished second in the nation in points per game (behind Oakland’s Reggie Hamilton) and beat out Montana’s Will Cherry for the RD Big Sky award.

Big South- Nick Barbour, G, High Point University (20.4 ppg,.484 3-Point FG Pct.)- UNC-Asheville’s J.P. Primm won the AP award, but Barbour won the Roundball Daily.com award with 44 percent of the vote.

Big West- Casper Ware, G, Long Beach State University (17.4 ppg, 3.3 apg)- The senior guard beat out UCSB’s Orlando Johnson for the award in leading the 49ers to the NCAA Tournament.

Casper on winning the award: “It is a big honor to be named the Big West Player of the Year by Roundball Daily.com, and I need to give thanks to my coaches and teammates for helping put me in position to win the award.”

Colonial Athletic Association- Bradford Burgess, G, Virginia Commonwealth University (13.3 ppg, 4.9 rpg)- The senior Burgess’ leadership was key in winning him this award in a tightly-contested battle with Drexel’s Frantz Massenat.

Conference USA- Will Barton, G, Memphis University (18.1 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 3.0 apg)- The do-everything sophomore guard ran away with the C-USA Player of the Year award.

Buffalo's Mitchell Watt ran away with the MAC Player of the Year Award. (Photo: Mitchell McAtee)

Horizon League- Ray McCallum, Jr., G, Detroit University (15.6 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 3.9 apg)- McCallum won the Roundball Daily.com award in an extremely tight race with Valparaiso forward Ryan Broekhoff.

Independents-Antwan Carter, C, Longwood University (19.4 ppg, 9.2 rpg)- Carter was outstanding for Longwood, which went 10-21 this season as a Division 1 Independent.

Antwan on winning the award: ” I feel very honored to receive this award from Roundball Daily.com. I’d like to thank my coaches and teammates for making awards like this possible for me to receive, and I appreciate this recognition as a player on an Independent team this season.”

Ivy League- Zach Rosen, F, University of Pennsylvania (18.5 ppg, 5.2 apg)- The senior guard ran away with our award despite sharing AP honors with Harvard’s Kyle Casey.

Mid-American- Mitchell Watt, F, University of Buffalo (16.6 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 2.3 apg)- Watt ran away with the MAC Player of the Year award, receiving the highest percentage (79%) of votes of any player in the country. Ohio’s D.J. Cooper finished in second.

Watt on winning the award: “It’s an honor to win this award. It’s especially gratifying because it was voted on by coaches around the country. I truly appreciate the acknowledgment, but it couldn’t be possible without the help of my coaches and teammates. They have helped make this a truly special year.”

Metro Atlantic Athletic- Scott Machado, G, Iona College (13.6 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 9.9 apg)- The nation’s assists leader is an outstanding point guard and could be an NBA Lottery pick. He dominated the voting.

Norfolk State's Kyle O'Quinn calls winning our MEAC Player of the Year honor "a team award." Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Mid-Eastern Athletic- Kyle O’Quinn, C, Norfolk State University (15.9 ppg, 10.4 rpg)- Not sure which is the greater honor for O’Quinn, leading Norfolk State to one of the biggest upsets in tournament history in defeating 2nd-seeded Missouri, or winning this award? Wait, don’t answer that.

O’Quinn on winning the award: “It feels great to be honored for the year I had and we had as a team. But I couldn’t have done this without my teammates, so this is like a team award to me. We all accomplished a lot this season and we’re proud to have been the first NSU team to win the MEAC title and an NCAA Division 1 tournament game.”

Missouri Valley Conference- Doug McDermott, F, Creighton University (23.2 ppg, 8.2 rpg)-The sophomore forward and coaches’ son was a national revelation this season, and was named as a first-team All-American.

Mountain West- Drew Gordon, F/C, University of New Mexico (13.4 ppg, 10.9 rpg)-The senior forward beat out San Diego State guard Jamal Franklin and Colorado State forward Dorian Green for this honor.

Northeast Conference- Julian Boyd, F, Long Island University-Brooklyn (17.4 ppg, 9.5 rpg)- Boyd edged teammate Jamal Olasewere and Robert Morris’ Velton Jones for the NEC Player of the Year honors.

Julian on winning the award: “It’s a great honor. I could not have done it without my teammates, especially Jason Brickman. He runs the team and gets me more than half my points.”

Colorado's Andre Roberson won Roundball Daily's Pac-12 Player of the Year award after leading the Buffs to a Pac-12 title and the Round of 32. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)

Ohio Valley Conference- Isaiah Canaan, G, Murray State University (19.2 ppg, 3.7 apg, 3.2 rpg)- The junior guard also finished fourth in our National Player of the Year voting, garnering 5.3% of the vote.

Pac-12- Andre Roberson, F, University of Colorado (11.6 ppg, 11.1 rpg)- Jorge Gutierrez won the Pac-12 AP Player of the Year award, but Roberson dominated this vote, which also took into account the postseason. Roberson was outstanding in leading Colorado to a Pac-12 tournament championship in the school’s first season in the conference. The Buffaloes then knocked off sixth-seeded UNLV to advance to the third round of the NCAA Tournament, while Cal was blown out by South Florida in a play-in game.

Andre on winning the award: “It means a lot to be recognized for what I accomplished in the Pac-12 Conference this year. I’m looking forward to the challenge of getting better this off-season and look to continue to build on what we did as a team in the Pac-12.”

Patriot League- C.J. McCollum, G, Lehigh University– (21.9 ppg, 6.5 rpg)-McCollum was the best player on the floor when the 15th-seeded Mountain Hawks took down Duke in the Round of 64 in the NCAAs. He won this award easily, capturing 77% of the vote.

SEC- Anthony Davis, F, University of Kentucky (14.3 ppg, 10.0 rpg, 4.7 bpg)- No duh. Just as a reminder, Davis put up 16 rebounds, 5 assists, 6 blocks, and 3 steals in UK’s national championship win over Kansas. He went 1-for-10 from the field and still completely dominated the game. Amazing.

Southern Conference- DeMon Brooks, F, Davidson College (16.3 ppg, 6.0 rpg)- The sophomore forward will be a player to keep an eye on next season in the SoCon.

Southland Conference-Patrick Richard, G, McNeese State University (18.1 ppg, 6.3 rpg)- Richard took home the award in one of the most hotly-contested of all of the conference races. Texas-Arlington’s LaMarcus Reed III (17.8 ppg) finished a very close second.

Richard on winning the award: “I am certainly excited to win the award and be named our conference player of the year. It’s an honor for me just to be considered in the same grouping of outstanding athletes that we have in our conference. To be named our league’s top player is an honor not only for me but for our entire team and our coaching staff.”

The Valley's Paul Crosby won our SWAC Player of the Year Award, and might be an NBA prospect. (Photo: ESPN)

Southwestern Athletic- Paul Crosby, C, Mississippi Valley State (13.6 ppg, 7.4 rpg)-Crosby was the runaway winner in the SWAC, and earned a spot in Roundball Daily.com’s heart for his heart-wrenching press conference after the Delta Devils’ opening-round loss to Western Kentucky.

Crosby on winning the award: “It’s an honor to be recognized for my talent on the court. It was a thrilling senior year for me and I’ll always remember it.”

Summit League- Nate Wolters, G, South Dakota State University (21.3 ppg, 6.0 apg, 5.2 rpg)- This kid will be heard from next season. The junior guard is one of the nation’s most anonymous superstars, even after leading the Jackrabbits to the NCAA Tournament this year.

Nate on winning the award: “It’s a great honor to be named Player of the Year in the Summit League, especially in a league with some really good players this year. It was fun to compete against some of the top scorers in the country almost every week. Our goal as a team was to win the Summit League Tournament and play in the NCAA Tournament, and to accomplish that for the first time in school history was great.”

Sun Belt Conference- Tony Mitchell, F, University of North Texas (14.7 ppg, 10.3 rpg)-Speaking of players who will be heard from in the future, North Texas’ Mitchell won this award as a freshman, beating out Middle Tennessee State’s LeRon Dendy.

Western Athletic Conference-Raheem Appelby, G, Louisiana Tech University (13.9 ppg, 2.4 rpg)-Another freshman winner, the 6-2 guard was a surprise choice in the WAC. Appelby did come on strong in the conference tournament in leading the Bulldogs to the championship game.

West Coast Conference- Matthew Dellavedova, G, Saint Mary’s College (15.6 ppg, 6.4 apg)-The sweet-shooting Australian was a runaway winner in the WCC. It seems like Dellavedova has been with the Gaels forever, but he’s only a junior, which means that next season could be just as magical in Marauga.

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Award voting was conducted and tabulated by e-mail via www.surveymonkey.com.


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  1. Pingback: Detroit’s Ray McCallum talks about winning Roundball Daily.com Horizon League Player of the Year « ROUNDBALL DAILY

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