Cam Whitmore Big East Freshman of the Year

[Waquoit]

Put some respect on Niels Giffey's name

Giffey played 24 minutes in the national chmpionship game. As a freshman.

 

[ElGreco]

Villanova freshman Cam Whitmore named top Big East freshman

Cam Whitmore was named the top freshman in the Big East Wednesday, hours before the conference tournament was set to begin.

www.inquirer.com

Robbery in my opinion

Yep, robbery. Whitmore is definitely an athlete and NBA player but he missed a ton of games as did Bouknight-and it cost him! Karaban stepped in day one and was a good player and became a VERY good player and will be a great player.

 

[Jorgensen]

Agreed, huge snub for AK, but the team will be fueled to bring pain to the BE this week, and AK will come back as CPOY next year.

 

[Sportsman5]

I'd rather have Karaban than Whitmore this year and clearly Karaban will be super valuable to us after this season, but I think it's fair.

Karaban: 9.7p, 4.4r, 1.9a, 1.7 3PM, 56.5 2p%, 39.4 3p%, 82.5 ft%, 0.6s, 0.6b

Whitmore: 12.6p, 5.1r, 0.7a, 1.4 3PM, 55.7 2p%, 34.7 3p%, 73.3 ft%, 1.4s, 0.4b

I think part of it is Villanova was 2-5 without Whitmore.

The overall production from Whitmore is higher because he was relied on a little more to take shots and get defensive rebounds, but the efficiency of Karaban was better due to better shooting percentages, more assists, and less turnovers. Hence Whitmore's PER was higher, but Karaban's efficency rating was much higher on offense and equal to Whitmore on defense.

Alex Karaban College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Alex Karaban - Stats, Game Logs, Splits, and much more

www.sports-reference.com

Cam Whitmore College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Cam Whitmore - Stats, Game Logs, Splits, and much more

www.sports-reference.com

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Anything that has Karaban fired up tomorrow is okay with me. Now someone take something from Newton.

 

[UCSouth]

I'd rather have Karaban than Whitmore this year and clearly Karaban will be super valuable to us after this season, but I think it's fair.

Karaban: 9.7p, 4.4r, 1.9a, 1.7 3PM, 56.5 2p%, 39.4 3p%, 82.5 ft%, 0.6s, 0.6b

Whitmore: 12.6p, 5.1r, 0.7a, 1.4 3PM, 55.7 2p%, 34.7 3p%, 73.3 ft%, 1.4s, 0.4b

I think part of it is Villanova was 2-5 without Whitmore.

Not sure, without looking, but how many games did Villanova lose with him in the line-up? 9 or 10? We'll get a motivated Karaban in NYC.

 

[CL82]

More bulletin board material for AK.

Remember when Freeman used a biggest award snub to motivate him for the BET? That should be Alex’s model.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Still don't understand this logic. Are you saying that whoever voted for Clingan was only necessarily voting between Clingan and Karaban? Or vice versa? Doesn't make any sense. Or that there was default voting for Whitmore because voters couldn't make up their minds between Clingan and Karaban? That doesn't make any sense either.

Karaban and Whitmore were unanimous selections to the freshman team.

You only need one or two Whitmore voters voters to vote Whitmore one, Clingan two and Karaban three as compared to Karaban voters going Karaban, Whitmore and Clingan.

It's obvious it was a two person race overall so it came down to a small number of voters who didn't put Karaban second.

 

[Kitaman]

Let Whitmore have it.

Whitmore today, Karaban tomorrow and the next day and the . . . . . .

Just saying Karaban will be the superior sophomore and beyond.

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

The future will be kinder to Alex - more NCAA wins, more BE post-season awards, and ultimately a longer NBA career. Mark my words.

 

[gsmooth]

Remember when Freeman used a biggest award snub to motivate him for the BET? That should be Alex’s model.

correct. I thought Karaban should've gotten BEFOTY, but I am hoping he gets on fire after being snubbed. Going back to 2011, I am glad Kemba didn't get his BEPOY award, too. I am not sure he would publicly admit this, but I think he went scorched earth on the competition after that and it resulted in UConn winning 11 straight single elimination games.

 

[gtcam]

This award was Whitmore’s to lose the minute he committed to Nova.
Karaban was the more complete player and was awarded weekly accordingly.
This is the toughest award to win in any league when there is a top 25 recruit coming to play. Ridiculous

 

[tcf15]

Since new Big East was formed, here’s the list of players to have won Freshman of the Week at least six times in a season:

Henry Ellenson (2015-16)
Omari Spellman (2017-18)
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (2019-20)
Ryan Nembhard (2021-22)
Alex Karaban (2022-23)

Of those five, here’s the list of players who didn’t win BE Freshman of the Year:

Alex Karaban (2022-23)

 

[husky429]

He wanted it.

Karaban is one of the leading candidates for the Big East freshman of the year along with Villanova’s Cam Whitmore. Both players were unanimous selections to the all-freshman team.

In Saturday’s 71-59 win at Villanova in the regular season finale, Karaban stated his case by finishing with 16 points, six rebounds, four assists and three blocks.

It’s been his goal since the beginning of the season to win the league’s stop freshman honor. Whitmore was the preseason pick.

“I knew he was the talk of the town for freshmen going into the season, so I wanted to prove myself this season that I could compete with him,” Karaban said Saturday. “He’s such a talented player. That was an individual goal that I told the coaches before the season that I wanted to do.

“... It was definitely something in the back of my mind during the season and I just wanted to finish out the season strong.”

Big East honors four Huskies, including first-team picks Hawkins and Sanogo

UConn's inside-outside duo of sophomore Jordan Hawkins and junior Adama Sanogo were rewarded for their strong play this season, earning All-Big East first team honors.

www.theday.com

Of course he wanted it. I just mean he doesn't strike me as the type to be bothered by it and let it affect his game.

 

[mauconnfan]

Highway robbery!

You're move Alex, next.

 

[superjohn]

The team doesn't need any extra motivation to beat the teams coming up but they sure have a lot of bulletin board material now. Karaban deserved this award.

 

[TyroneShoo]

Of course, the better player with better numbers won.

 

[TyroneShoo]

So this award has essentially been reduced to a points per game accolade... total BS.

Dont forget Rebounds and assists too

 

[Phoenixhusky]

Karaban totally deserved this, he should be motivated tomorrow.

 

[mauconnfan]

Dont forget Rebounds and assists too

Rebounds edge to Cam assists 5.1-4.4 and taking care of the ball easily Karaban. They ran their offense through him quite often and despite that he has an edge onassists and less turnovers as well.

 

[CTBasketball]

 

[Jaydumo20]

When AK was winning freshman of the week, week after week, we were crushing team after team. I thought of his awards then as a nice cherry on top. I don't care about those awards one iota when we are playing like we have been. Enjoy it CAM. I mean that

 

[giddyup]

Screw job. Let’s wreak devastation on the BE this week.

 

[auror]

Of course, the better player with better numbers won.

Didn't look like the better player or have better numbers either time they played each other.

 

[auror]

And really, it depends if you look at good numbers or just "who took more shot" numbers.

Minutes-weighted luck-adjusted RAPM. RAPM is adjusted for teammates.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Karaban and Whitmore were unanimous selections to the freshman team.

You only need one or two Whitmore voters voters to vote Whitmore one, Clingan two and Karaban three as compared to Karaban voters going Karaban, Whitmore and Clingan.

It's obvious it was a two person race overall so it came down to a small number of voters who didn't put Karaban second.

I doubt anybody voted Clingan 2. People keep mentioning this but there was no split vote because only two guys were even in the conversation. They picked the guy who looks like an NBA player instead of the guy who looks like a superb college player. I'd vote Karaban, but they clearly gave Whitmore credit for time off as if he played.

 

[M.S.G.]

Obviously furious about this - but I think it's just another piece of bulletin board material.. Time to crush some souls in the Garden.

 

[JB75]

Wow, we’re going to have a chip on our shoulder- kolek gets player of the year over sanogo - whitmore gets freshman of the year over Karaban after Karaban outplayed him in both meetings, and Kalkbrenner comically gets defensive player of the year over Jackson -love it.

 

[ElGreco]

The overall production from Whitmore is higher because he was relied on a little more to take shots and get defensive rebounds, but the efficiency of Karaban was better due to better shooting percentages, more assists, and less turnovers. Hence Whitmore's PER was higher, but Karaban's efficency rating was much higher on offense and equal to Whitmore on defense.

Alex Karaban College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Alex Karaban - Stats, Game Logs, Splits, and much more

www.sports-reference.com

Cam Whitmore College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Cam Whitmore - Stats, Game Logs, Splits, and much more

www.sports-reference.com

Whitmore is a very nice player. See ya, and take that absolute gift of a trophy you got to the NBA with you. We will just be content to bring back the real Freshman of the year to terrorize all you idiot coaches next year.

Yeah baby, yeah it’s not all about scoring average. My guess is Karaban played more games and was not the first option as was the hyped Whitmore ?

 

[HooperScooper]

Of course he wanted it. I just mean he doesn't strike me as the type to be bothered by it and let it affect his game.

Oh I hope it affects his game. In a positive way.