Athletic Releases Mid-Season All-America Teams: Watkins, Hidalgo, Morrow All on 1st Team. No Reese (Yet)

[Jumper33]

JuJu Watkins has no business, as of today, being a 5-player 1st or 2nd-Team AA. The Athletic's voters blundered badly. In conference play, Watkins has struggled mightily, unlike the other 9 players on the Athletic's Mid-Season AA Teams. The other 4 players on their 1st-Team AA team are 1st, 2nd or 3rd within their respective conferences in conference play Win Shares. This makes sense. To be an AA, you should be one of the very best performers in your conference. Similarly, 4 of the 5 players on the Athletic's 2nd-Team AA are top 4 within their respective conferences in conference play Win Shares, and Ayoka Lee is 6th, even though she has missed 3 conference games with injury. Watkins is 13th in the Pac-12 in conference play Win Shares, which makes her quite a stretch for an AA team.

Watkins has shot the ball very poorly in conference play. There are 31 players in the Pac-12 averaging 10 or more points in conference play. Watkins is dead last among those 31 in EFG%, and 30th in FG%. Her conference play EFG% of 38.5% is nowhere close to the conference-play shooting performance of the 2 other volume-scoring guards on the First Team, Caitlin Clark (62.7%) and Hannah Hidalgo (50%), and nowhere close to the even more efficient Paige Bueckers, who's place Watkins took on the First Team. If Watkins' poor shooting in conference play continues, the real question might become whether Watkins is even a top 5 player in the Pac-12. Iriafen, Brink, Beers and Pili are having really strong conference seasons.

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Thanks for putting this together. She has really shot poorly lately. Great player overall and I know there has been a lot of hype around her but in my personal opinion it’s time to officially say Hidalgo is having the best season out of the freshmen. That could still change too.

 

[Darwin]

JuJu Watkins has no business, as of today, being a 5-player 1st or 2nd-Team AA. The Athletic's voters blundered badly. In conference play, Watkins has struggled mightily, unlike the other 9 players on the Athletic's Mid-Season AA Teams. The other 4 players on their 1st-Team AA team are 1st, 2nd or 3rd within their respective conferences in conference play Win Shares. This makes sense. To be an AA, you should be one of the very best performers in your conference. Similarly, 4 of the 5 players on the Athletic's 2nd-Team AA are top 4 within their respective conferences in conference play Win Shares, and Ayoka Lee is 6th, even though she has missed 3 conference games with injury. Watkins is 13th in the Pac-12 in conference play Win Shares, which makes her quite a stretch for an AA team.

Watkins has shot the ball very poorly in conference play. There are 31 players in the Pac-12 averaging 10 or more points in conference play. Watkins is dead last among those 31 in EFG%, and 30th in FG%. Her conference play EFG% of 38.5% is nowhere close to the conference-play shooting performance of the 2 other volume-scoring guards on the First Team, Caitlin Clark (62.7%) and Hannah Hidalgo (50%), and nowhere close to the even more efficient Paige Bueckers, who's place Watkins took on the First Team. If Watkins' poor shooting in conference play continues, the real question might become whether Watkins is even a top 5 player in the Pac-12. Iriafen, Brink, Beers and Pili are having really strong conference seasons.

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The only problem with your “conf EFG%” analysis is that not all conferences are equal. For example, Paige doesn’t shoot 71% in a P5 conference imo.

 

[Darwin]

Morrow is not a 1st teamer. She's not even the best player on her own team, so I wouldn't put her on the 2nd team either.

Caitlin Clark, Iowa
JuJu Watkins, Southern Cal
Paige Bueckers, UConn
Cameron Brink, Stanford
Ayoka Lee, Kansas State

Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame
Alissa Pilli, Utah
Angel Reese, LSU
Camilla Cardoso, South Carolina
Te-Hina Paopao, South Carolina

Toughest omission: Elizabeth Kitley, VT; Raven Johnson, South Carolina

Hidalgo on second team is just wrong. She is one of the top 2-3 players in the nation this season. And Lee on first team is a stretch, Kitley has better numbers than she does btw.

 

[BigTenGuy]

The only problem with your “conf EFG%” analysis is that not all conferences are equal. For example, Paige doesn’t shoot 71% in a P5 conference imo.

Fair point. Which is why the chart also has EFG% for the whole season, where Watkins still fares poorly (46.7%) compared to Clark (60.5%), Hidalgo (54.1%) and Bueckers (63.2%).

 

[hoopsnloops32]

I'd put Aaliyah Edwards on this list over Paige TBH. Aaliyah has shown up in bigger games with more consistency for UConn.

 

[JstVisiting]

Hidalgo on second team is just wrong. She is one of the top 2-3 players in the nation this season. And Lee on first team is a stretch, Kitley has better numbers than she does btw.

The only thing I have strong feelings about is Lee should on the first team. She's led a team from outside the preseason rankings to #2 in the nation, she's put up big numbers, and she's off the charts in advanced stats. 2nd in the nation in player efficiency rating and WS/40 min, 3rd in offensive and defensive rating, 4th in +/-

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IDC if you flip Watkins and Hidalgo, but the other 4 are set in stone for me. Doesn't mean they will be at year end, but they are now. Since I placed everybody else in order, should have dropped Watkins to 5th on my list, but I just cut and pasted her and Clark from the original votes.