The American Athletic Conference announced their award-winners this week in advance of the conference tournament in Orlando. SMU’s Nic Moore wasn’t banned from receiving honors, taking home the conference Player of the Year award for the second consecutive season. Temple coach Fran Dunphy was named the Coach of the Year and Memphis freshman Dedric Lawson won the Rookie of the Year Award.
Daniel Hamilton managed to land on the all-conference second team, and Shonn Miller was an honorable mention.
That UConn was shut out of the major awards is not entirely surprising given their struggles this season, as well as the lack of a star player. But we’ve got a full day before the Huskies take on Cincinnati in the AAC tournament so let’s see if we can muster up some outrage.
Miller being left off the all-conference teams seems the most obvious snub. Miller led the league in PER and was second in Win Shares to Cincy’s Gary Clark, who landed on the second team. Jumping over to KenPom, Miller’s ORtg of 127.0 was the highest in the conference. Unfortunately for Miller, the raw numbers just weren’t in his favor. At 12.6 points and 5.5 rebounds per game, it was just too easy to pick other guys over him — the fault for this residing with his teammates for not getting him enough shots despite his efficiency, and his proclivity to get whistled for fouls.
Some folks were mad online about Jalen Adams being left off the conference’s all-rookie team. Personally, I’m more mad about Tacko Fall being snubbed. Adams came on strong towards the end of the conference season, showing glimpses of a talent that should get Husky fans riled up for next year. However, it’s difficult to make a statistical argument that Adams was one of the AAC’s five best freshmen this year — unless your argument is that Kentrell Barkley should have been disqualified since ECU is not really in the conference.
The individual award for which a UConn player appeared most deserving was Defensive Player of the Year. Daniel Hamilton was statistically the Huskies’ best defensive player this year. Hamilton was one of only seven players in the country to record over 2.5 Defensive Win Shares. By Sports-Reference’s Defensive Rating, he was the 17th best defensive player in the country and the best in the AAC. It should also work in his favor that UConn as a team ranks as KenPom’s eight best defensive team in the nation.
The problem for Hamilton is that Cincy’s defense was even better, ranking fifth in the same metric, which was probably a factor in Gary Clark taking home the Defensive Player of the Year Award. He was a touch behind Hamilton in several of the stat categories we mentioned above, but outpaced the Husky forward in blocks and steals, and was a key factor in Hamilton himself looking terrible on offense in their two matchups this year.
So what do you think? Was Miller snubbed for all-conference honors? How about Adams or Hamilton? Vote below and let the world know that you’re mad online.
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