Paige as NPOY

[cbraarj]

1) The Major POY (Naismith, Honda, AP & Wade) do not have ESPN media people that vote.
2) Paige is not eligible for the Wade because she is a freshman. That is actually written in to the criteria for the Wade.
3) The ESPN personalities and ESPN are not down playing Paige-quite the opposite. If you google Paige and ESPN you will find several videos of ESPN shows unrelated to WCBB on which Paige is featured. ESPN is in the Media business Paige is Media equivalent of must see box office gold.
4) You are forgetting a couple things A) Just about all UCONN games are broadcast on ESPN radio. B) Two major UCONN games that were cancelled this season ( Mississippi State & Louisville) would have been broadcast on ESPN.
5) The people screaming "upperclassmen" are screaming a verifiable fact that these awards tend to favor upperclassmen. Two notable examples are Senior Tina Charles displacing Maya Moore as POY and Senior Megan Gustafson winning the AP player of the year over Junior Sabrina Ionescu.

They started talking Tina up early and never strayed from that. Tina had a great year but Maya should have won everything!

 

[Alydar]

I'm still not sure why some think there is an ESPN ant-UCONN or Anti-Paige "campaign" but... Charli Collier is not in conversation for POY.

I don't see it as anti-UConn, it's a business decision. Promote those teams and players that will generate maximum revenue for ESPN. ESPN loves UConn. They usually play an entertaining style of basketball and draw relatively large numbers of TV viewers.
ESPN may own the SEC rights but I don't think they love those games where it's 22-11 at the half with more turnovers than fg attempts. What irks me is when the ESPN game announcers try and make a team like Georgia into a possible FF contender on an SEC Network game and then promote some ACC team with the same ridiculous comment on the ACC Network. And I don't blame the announcers, I blame their bosses who I suspect are more interested in the viewership numbers of a game than the final score.

 

[hart2hart]

JMO: I think the NPOY Awards will be split this year ..... and I think that’s a good thing. However, I’m glad we have Paige and they don’t!
I can’t wait to see her play and all the team today! They are so fun to watch and just love their smiles! Nika’s smile last game was Priceless!

 

[Waquoit]

So who do you believe will win? I keep coming back to who is a better player and I can't think of any.

I agree. There isn't anyone better. She's the best player on the best team. Should be case closed. But I have the sense that voters don't want to give it to a UConn freshman. Last year was the year for a sub-par UConn team and it was cruelly taken away from them. UConn wasn't supposed to be this good until next year, they thought. Everyone knows what's coming in and the following 3 years minimum will be UConn years. I don't know who they will they give it to, if it's not Paige it doesn't matter.

 

[DefenseBB]

What irks me is when the ESPN game announcers try and make a team like Georgia into a possible FF contender on an
SEC Network game and then promote some ACC team with the same ridiculous comment on the ACC Network. And I don't blame the announcers, I blame their bosses who I suspect are more interested in the viewership numbers of a game than the final score.

Wait, what? Yeah, as if some producer on the game cast tells Deb Antonelli all the ridiculous things that come out of her mouth about her beloved SEC or tells Carolyn Peck to promote Texas A&M as a #1 seed on a Tennessee vs. Georgia game. Game announcers on the main 3 teams that cover national games care more about giving their opinion on the "state of the game" than actually announcing the game at hand. If anything, the bosses at ESPN are neglectful of keeping these shrills on point.

 

[Alydar]

Wait, what? Yeah, as if some producer on the game cast tells Deb Antonelli all the ridiculous things that come out of her mouth about her beloved SEC or tells Carolyn Peck to promote Texas A&M as a #1 seed on a Tennessee vs. Georgia game. Game announcers on the main 3 teams that cover national games care more about giving their opinion on the "state of the game" than actually announcing the game at hand. If anything, the bosses at ESPN are neglectful of keeping these shrills on point.

The producer isn't who I was referring to. Much of what the announcers say is scripted, not in a word for word way but rather in that the topics to be discussed during the game are decided on before hand. A lot of the script is decide on by the announcers themselves but there's a bunch of stuff that they are told to talk about, like Charlie Creme's stuff for example. That isn't the producer, who may prompt the announcers on what topic to do next but has very little input on the choice of topics. I worked with a couple of guys who had a weekly radio show analyzing horse races of that day. Everything was rehearsed. They had sheets showing what was next on the list and part of their job was to make it seem like off-the-cuff comments. I would sit in the room as they decided who would say what about a particular horse. On the air it sounded like two guys in a bar talking. There is very little ad-libbing on the air. I recall that recently one of the announcers for UConn apologized to her partner on the air for asking a question that hadn't been discussed prior to the game. When I was employed in horse racing we could get live feeds of basketball/golf/etc. from the arenas via satellite. When the ads came on our feed would remain live at the event and sometimes we would hear some frank and honest comments. Once, they broke for an ad after telling us how exciting the game was since it was tied at the half. Once they thought they were off the air the comments were "this has to be the worst-played game I've seen this year". "The coaches should both give back their salaries this week". Now that's honesty. And when we heard things like that it made it obvious that the on-air comments were fake.
What we see and hear is not that much different from an infomercial. Praise the product and don't mention the flaws. I still enjoy it but I'm not naive enough to believe it's all just honest opinions.

 

[bbsamjj]

I do think Paige is probably the best fit for POY, but I will say "best" team this year is almost impossible to discern.

UConn has wins over SC, Tenn, DePaul (2x), and a loss to Arkansas
NC State has wins over SC, Louisville, and bizarre losses to VT and UNC
Stanford has wins over Arizona (2x), Oregon (2x), UCLA, and losses to UCLA and Colorado
Texas A&M has wins over Depaul, Kentucky, Missouri St, Arkansas (2x) and Tennesse, and a loss to LSU. If they beat SC tomorrow, one could argue they have a more impressive resume than UConn.

Neither Louisville nor Baylor have any marquee wins (and both had their games versus UConn cancelled). MD has wins over Arkansas and Indiana, with losses to Ohio St and Missouri St.

 

[CocoHusky]

During the chat for Butler game @BostonBay mention that Paige put her self back into this conversations. I couldn’t agree more. When you break 2 UCONN records in 21 games people are going to be paying attention. Paige “probably” wrapped up the Liberman this afternoon.

 

[hart2hart]

Hooray for Paige! Her assists are simply awesome! Can’t wait to see the highlight reel!
PIMP - Paige Is My Pick!

 

[BostonBay]

Paige has the best all-around game in the country. Period. Best shooter, 1 of the best passers, good rebounder & defender. Plays the whole game (nearly 40 minutes a game except for garbage time), but yet is so efficient. She also makes everyone around her better.

Finally, she's not just a stat-stuffer as her best games came against the very top competition when she carried the team. CLUTCH highlight reel moments. I dont see how you do not give it to her at this point!

 

[Gurleyman]

I do think Paige is probably the best fit for POY, but I will say "best" team this year is almost impossible to discern.

UConn has wins over SC, Tenn, DePaul (2x), and a loss to Arkansas
NC State has wins over SC, Louisville, and bizarre losses to VT and UNC
Stanford has wins over Arizona (2x), Oregon (2x), UCLA, and losses to UCLA and Colorado
Texas A&M has wins over Depaul, Kentucky, Missouri St, Arkansas (2x) and Tennesse, and a loss to LSU. If they beat SC tomorrow, one could argue they have a more impressive resume than UConn.

Neither Louisville nor Baylor have any marquee wins (and both had their games versus UConn cancelled). MD has wins over Arkansas and Indiana, with losses to Ohio St and Missouri St.

I’d agree with that. We are a Paige shooting barrage and/or a Boston putback away from maybe being ranked fifth or so with just one marquee win over Tennessee (I think DePaul will fall out this week).

Other than Louisville, the other teams on that list or in the top 10 all rely on balance moreso than one standout (Arizona relies on McDonald but she hasn’t had a NPOY type season). Owusu I think should be on the cusp of first team AA and maybe gets overlooked in these discussions a bit.

 

[Gurleyman]

11 Naismith Semifinalists

Boston
Bueckers
Clark
Collier
Cunane
Evans
Hillmon
Howard
McDonald
Onyenwere
NaLyssa Smith

Feel like Paige coming back to earth efficiency wise makes it a little tougher and makes Evans the favorite as a senior (you need to be head and shoulders better as a freshman). It’s based on the whole year, but Paige has lost what separated her from the pack stats-wise (she still has the SC signature win performance, though). But her close to the season means there’s reasons to vote for someone else besides just anti-freshman bias.

Semifinalists for Naismith Women's Player of the Year award announced

The award honors the best of the best in women's NCAA Division I college basketball. This year's semifinalist list is longer than usual due to a tie among voters.

www.ncaa.com

 

[Cuango]

I don't see an anti-UConn or anti-Paige bias on ESPN or their family of conference networks. There might be a couple individual announcers who are haters, but overall I think the opposite is true, if anything.

Example: Yesterday during the Kentucky-Georgia game on SECN (ESPN) Carolyn Peck was hyping up Rhyne Howard pretty good for SEC POY and national POY. But they showed a Paige-Rhyne side-by-side comparison graphic showing Paige ahead on PPG and APG with Rhyne ahead only on RPG. There was no real compelling need for them to bring Paige into the conversation. This is not something they would do if the network was anti-Paige or anti-UConn.

ESPN is typically dishonest in the way they present the various candidates for player of he year. Yes, they do present Paige as a strong candidate (really, do they have a choice?) but when they talk about one of their two favorites, they gloss over some inconvenient facts. They say Howard has a history of “ coming up big” against the best opponents. Yet, in three of their biggest games this season, Howard went 3/16 with 14 points and 3 boards, (Tenn), 4/13 with 8 points and 7 boards, (Tenn), and 2/11 with 12 points and 6 boards, (South Carolina)! So, in three of their biggest games, she went 9/40 (24%+-) and averaged 10.6 points with 5 boards. Now I think Howard is a great player but this year she has been pretty inconsistent in the big games and that is simply a fact and should be addressed in the story. Some may say it really doesn’t matter and that doesn’t show a bias etc but there are many ways of shading stories and one of them is by omission. Yes, she has a history of coming up big in the toughest games last year (and, to be fair, she did play well in some of their big games this year) but I just think this is another example of how they slant things over there. Finally, they don’t even mention Hillmon, instead touting players who imo should not be in the conversation. Boston, ESPN’s other favorite, has had a pretty disappointing season. I expected her to be really dominant this year and instead she’s been merely good, McDonald is a volume shooter who can’t hit the three consistently, has too many turnovers and not enough assists, Smith is, again, a good player but has not blown us away this year, Collier, dominates the Sisters of the Poor but goes AWOL when they play Baylor. IMO, there really should be only four players in the conversation. Paige, Dana, Naz, and Caitlin. Obviously, I think Paige is a slight favorite over the other three but it would not surprise me to see all of those four split the awards between them. Naz will get one more chance to make a statement before the conference tournament when Michigan faces number 8 Maryland tomorrow. She can really improve her chances with a big game. JMO

 

[j66kicker]

ESPN is typically dishonest in the way they present the various candidates for player of he year. Yes, they do present Paige as a strong candidate (really, do they have a choice?) but when they talk about one of their two favorites, they gloss over some inconvenient facts. They say Howard has a history of “ coming up big” against the best opponents. Yet, in three of their biggest games this season, Howard went 3/16 with 14 points and 3 boards, (Tenn), 4/13 with 8 points and 7 boards, (Tenn), and 2/11 with 12 points and 6 boards, (South Carolina)! So, in three of their biggest games, she went 9/40 (24%+-) and averaged 10.6 points with 5 boards. Now I think Howard is a great player but this year she has been pretty inconsistent in the big games and that is simply a fact and should be addressed in the story. Some may say it really doesn’t matter and that doesn’t show a bias etc but there are many ways of shading stories and one of them is by omission. Yes, she has a history of coming up big in the toughest games last year (and, to be fair, she did play well in some of their big games this year) but I just think this is another example of how they slant things over there. Finally, they don’t even mention Hillmon, instead touting players who imo should not be in the conversation. Boston, ESPN’s other favorite, has had a pretty disappointing season. I expected her to be really dominant this year and instead she’s been merely good, McDonald is a volume shooter who can’t hit the three consistently, has too many turnovers and not enough assists, Smith is, again, a good player but has not blown us away this year, Collier, dominates the Sisters of the Poor but goes AWOL when they play Baylor. IMO, there really should be only four players in the conversation. Paige, Dana, Naz, and Caitlin. Obviously, I think Paige is a slight favorite over the other three but it would not surprise me to see all of those four split the awards between them. Naz will get one more chance to make a statement before the conference tournament when Michigan faces number 8 Maryland tomorrow. She can really improve her chances with a big game. JMO

Well today ESPN (Voepel) is touting Paige as the "most likely" NPOY candidate..... ?

Should UConn's Paige Bueckers win national player of the year?

Some years the national player of the year in women's college basketball is suspense-free, the coronation of a player who led the race start to finish. Think Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu last season, or UConn's Breanna Stewart in 2016. Other times, it's a two-player battle. And then there's this...

the-boneyard.com

 

[Cuango]

Well today ESPN (Voepel) is touting Paige as the "most likely" NPOY candidate..... ?

Should UConn's Paige Bueckers win national player of the year?

Some years the national player of the year in women's college basketball is suspense-free, the coronation of a player who led the race start to finish. Think Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu last season, or UConn's Breanna Stewart in 2016. Other times, it's a two-player battle. And then there's this...

the-boneyard.com

As said.

 

[CocoHusky]

ESPN is typically dishonest in the way they present the various candidates for player of he year. Yes, they do present Paige as a strong candidate (really, do they have a choice?)

Yes.