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Message: [QUOTE="UcMiami, post: 2126994, member: 199"] The thing with lists of greatest, is that everybody has their own opinion and criteria regardless of what greatness is being categorized - greatest paintings, greatest wines, greatest albums, or greatest in a sport or across sports. They are fun, and when dealing with contemporary competitive pursuits they are a way of acknowledging effort and success in an area of expertise. We have Nobel Prizes and when the one for Physics comes out, every Physician (joke) has an opinion for why their favorite was shafted! We WCBB fans have all sorts of awards and honors to debate and we often can't decide among ourselves which Uconn player is MVP of our own team and trying to decide the MVP and best starting five in the history of the program leads to 500 posts and no conclusion. So is it any wonder that we have issue with the decisions made by some faceless committee on MVPs and AAs? They are dealing with 340+ teams and 3500+ players and choosing 15 'best' in any order is daunting. Choosing 32 at large teams and sequencing them is fraught with controversy. The HOH award internally at Uconn has only increased Uconn fans' partisanship, but again trying to decide among ourselves who we would add that didn't make it is equally contentious. I like the AA lists and the other awards. As Uconn fans we have had much more that our 'fair share' of honorees and we have probably had many more honorees with 'questionable stats' than any other program because our team stats have easily eclipsed other contenders. DT, never near the top in any offensive or defense stat for example. Morgan Tuck as well. So just because some Uconn player doesn't get honored in a particular year is no reason to throw out the process. Kia will likely never make a first team AA and probably shouldn't - it doesn't in anyway diminish her importance to the team, or the fact that without her the team would have less success. And that is true for most players in the country who aren't even talked about as being in contention. I believe Gabby and Napheesa and Lou will all be on the WBCA 10 player first team, but I could live with any one of them being 'snubbed' and on a 5 player team ... I am pretty pleased that two made it. And I am extremely glad that Saniya made all regional team. And the fact that there are three or four entities handing out awards expands the list of honorees. And having rankings of first second and third expands the honorees but also gives some ranking to them. I also don't think the expansion of talent has had any effect on the debate - we have been having these debates for as long as I have followed the sport. And honestly, a lot of the passion generated is 'sour grapes'. But it drives conversation and debate and that doesn't hurt the sport. NB - Lieberman award winner is an example where raw stats have meant nothing most years - very few winners have led in assists, A/TO, or scoring, though most have been on #1 or 2 seeded teams in the NCAA. And NPOY is another where scoring average has definitely not been the main criteria. [/QUOTE]

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