Valley games wed.....

[Double D]

The only other strong candidate for Freshman of the Year in the Valley besides Sam Maniscalco, is P'Allen Stinnett of Creighton.

Creighton has lost 3 of the last 5 and P'Allen is 0-5 from 3-pt range over the last two games.
The two played pretty much even in their only head to head opportunity when BU trounced CU on 2/16, so it might boil down to this Saturday's game, as to how people will vote.

The factors that favor Stinnett, are that he plays more, but starts about half the time - same as Sam, and Stinnett's scoring average is 12ppg....but that's it, really, as Sam is more of the complete player.
Stinnett takes lots more shots but his conference scoring average is only 3 ppg more than Sam's. Sam's assists more than make up for the difference, plus Stinnett is actually known for his defensive weaknesses.

The factors that favor Maniscalco are that he is valuable as a point guard, perhaps the most important position on the floor, he has more assists (98 to 58 ) and fewer turnovers (47 to 66) and assist to turnover ratio of 2 for Sam vs. 0.9 for PS. Sam's 3 pt pct is 37% and he's scoring 10ppg in conference play, compared to 31% for PS.
Both are making themselves known as fine defensive players.

I think it is close and either player has a claim to the award, but I would love to see Sam rewarded for his all around play and defense.

I agree T. What Sam has accomplished this year doesn't show up in the averages. He has answered the bell EVERY time and hit some HUGE clutch shots in the process. IMO those shots held our entire season in the balance in some cases (EU comes to mind).

Unfortunatley, P'Allen is the big recruit with the big name with our MVC TV crew attatched to his "hindparts." P'Outofcontrol will be your winner.

[tornado]

and a couple of Creighton's close losses were when P'Allen had horrible games and may have taken some very ill-advised shots.
I am not into the blame game, but there are absolutely NO BU losses that the focus goes to Sam, but when CU lost in OT to Drake,
P'Allen had only one bucket on 4 shots, had five fouls, sending the Dogs to the line several times (where they were 17-18 ) and had 3 turnovers.

P'Allen leads Creighton in shots attempted by a long, long margin.
he leads in 3-pt attempts, but his pct is 10th on the team among players who have even attempted a 3-pointer, and 7th among the players who average double digit minutes.
I am convinced Creighton would actually be a better team if he shot less and let someone else shoot more.
He is the Bluejays' version of OJ Mayo....and fine, athletic player but lots of turnovers, few assists, lots of shots taken in order to score his points, and sometimes a little out of control both on and off the court.