Women's Hoops Blog

Inane commentary on a game that deserves far better


Wednesday, March 30, 2005

The Player of the Year awards are decided this week. Votes for the Wooden were due on Monday, and votes for the Wade and Naismith are due between now and the beginning of the Final Four. Here are the efficiency numbers for some of the candidates:

WNBA Efficiency Formula:

Irvin: 27.1
Davenport: 25.2
Wecker: 23.8
McCarville: 23.8
Young: 22.7
Augustus: 19.6
Currie: 18.6

ACC Efficiency Formula:

Irvin: 1.43
Davenport: 1.40
Wecker: 1.39
McCarville: 1.30
Young: 1.25
Augustus: 1.24
Currie: 1.16

Prouty Rating:

Davenport: 0.562
Young: 0.561
Augustus: 0.553
Wecker: 0.549
McCarville: 0.540
Irvin: 0.537
Currie: 0.527

I think it's a close call this year. I think you can make a legitimate case for any of these players, and possibly several others, including Latta, Pondexter, Earley, Ely, Haynie, Wiggins, and White.

In my heart, I would give it to:

Wecker, because she does everything, because she works harder than anyone, because she epitomizes everything that's great about women's basketball.

Or Currie, because she held her team together, because she led Duke to so many victories despite its weakened roster, because she put up great numbers despite terrible physical pain.

Or McCarville, because she led a top-20 team in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals, and blocks, and because she's my girl.

As a predictive matter, Augustus is almost guaranteed to win, and I'm just fine with that. She is still playing, and most of the other candidates aren't.

Seimone's overall individual numbers aren't eye-popping. She's not as good a defender as most of the other candidates. Much of LSU's success is due to her great teammates, especially Johnson and Fowles.

But at the end of the day, she is still the key. When it comes to crunch time, scoring is the hardest thing -- good defense isn't as hard as good offense. The ability to create your own shot and score may be the greatest skill to have in basketball. Her classic move -- drive, pull up, hang in the air, hit the shot -- looks like Michael and Kobe. No one else does it as well as she does, and no one can stop it consistently.

As a scorer, she is simply unmatched, and she is beautiful to watch. She'll win the awards this year, and she deserves them.