It’s the final day of Big Ten play, so it’s time for my unofficial ballot for all three All Big Ten teams. Who get’s the final First Team slot? Who is Nebraska’s All conference performer? What teams deserve two representatives?
by Jordan Beckley
Originally, I was going to do an entire awards ballot for the Big Ten.
However, I realized I don’t have a strong opinion on 6th Man of the Year. I didn’t feel like spilling ink debating Owen Freeman vs. Cam Christie for Freshman of the Year. I thought it was piling on a bit to break down why Matt Painter deserves Coach of the Year over everyone else. Oh and I accidentally wrote over 900 words on why Zach Edey deserves Defensive Player of the Year and I realized no one would finish the article.
So instead I will quickly just release my unofficial ballot for the All-Big Ten Teams and why I put some guys on one team, demoted others to the next team, picked one teammate over another, who the hard cuts were, etc. Basically my (condensed) thought process while selecting each team.
Enjoy or get angry at this All-Big Ten roster for now as the Big Ten Tournament starts soon and after that March Madness tips off and we will have forgotten all about conference awards.
1st Team All Big Ten
The first team is definitely the easiest team to pick. No matter whose list you read there will be three commonalities on all of them: Zach Edey, Terrence Shannon Jr & Boo Buie.
These three have been spectacular, all of them should be unanimous, and I imagine there is more intrigue on whether or not they make All-American teams than 1st team All-Big Ten.
No need to discuss Zach Edey repeating as Big Ten POY or 1st Team All-Big Ten as we are all well aware of the Big Maple.
Terrence Shannon Jr. will receive his second 1st Team honors and this time should be unanimous. I fear that he will be left off national All-American Ballots simply because of his alleged off-the-court issues which if he’s proven innocent will look really dumb.
Boo Buie seems to be the guy people keep leaving off nationally. I think he will miss third team All-American just like he missed the final cut for the Top 5 of the Bob Cousy Award. Still, Buie is (probably?) the greatest Northwestern player ever and graduates from a 2nd team selection to what should be a unanimous first team selection.
So, now we get to the hard part of the First Team with three guards battling for the final two spots. However, one of them locked down a spot last week with a dagger to seal an outright Big Ten Championship.
Braden Smith’s counting stats will not win you over. However, his play will win you a ton of games.
Smith has guided Purdue to their 2nd straight outright Big Ten Title and with a win on Sunday would set the record for most wins by a Big Ten team in the 20-game schedule era with 17. He is 2nd in the league in total assists and assists per game and has leveled up as a three level scorer.
In a Big Ten season dominated by Purdue, Braden Smith and Zach Edey both deserve first team nods.
That means we have a showdown with Tyson Walker vs Jahmir Young for the final spot.
Walker won both head to head matchups but his team is much better. In fact all arguments for Walker boil down to Michigan State being better not Tyson Walker being better than Young.
Jahmir Young averages more points (20.9ppg vs 18), more boards (4.8rpg vs 2.9) and more assists (at 4.2 vs 3.0) and trust me if anyone on Maryland made shots this year that would have been a much bigger gap.
Defensively they both are pretty good with Walker getting more steals a game, but I think most people believe Young to be a slightly better defender.
If you want to get real nerdy about it, the advanced numbers favor Young too. Jahmir is a better true shooter, has a better PER, more winshares (despite fewer wins) and a better plus minus. Oh and if your argument for Walker is he doesn’t have the ball as much as Young does… Walker has a usage rate of 29% and Young is at 31% a negligibile difference.
Jahmir Young gets the nod.
2nd Team All Big Ten
So, congrats Tyson Walker you are on the 2nd Team! Honestly with how stupid these awards are I bet the Big Ten just does a 6 player first team with everybody on it.
The next guy who has to be on 2nd team is AJ Storr. For a bit it looked like Storr could be on his way to first team, but then the wheels fell off for the Badgers. The St. Johns transfer has been excellent all season, but has actually done better in Big Ten play averaging 17.1 ppg and 4.5 rebounds than he has outside of it. Storr also has scored double digits in every Big Ten game this year.
My next add is the red hot Payton Sandfort for the red hot Hawkeyes. Iowa is making a last gasp push for the NCAA Tournament and Sandfort is the engine behind that push. Since the start of February, Sandfort has scored 18.2 ppg, 5.6 rebounds a contest, and 3.4 assists even recording Iowa’s first ever Triple Double. In that stretch Iowa is 6-3 and Sandfort has cemented a spot as Iowa has catapulted to a top half of the Big Ten team.
You can make a very good case that Marcus Domask deserves first team consideration. But in all honesty it should just be consideration. Domask’s highs (30+ points in wins over FAU, Northwestern & Wisconsin) are among the Big Ten’s best. His play stabilized Illinois during TSJ’s absence and he is on the fictional First Team All-Transfer Team as well.
So then who gets the last 2nd Team spot? Is it Dawson Garcia for a surprisingly competitive Minnesota? Ace Baldwin for a similar story for Penn State? Can Bruce Thornton’s numbers get him there despite all January-February losing streak?
Ultimately I went with Malik Reneau. In another year with capable guards on his team Reneau could have fought for First team. The sophomore flourished in his first year starting scoring 15.7ppg, grabbing 6 rpg, and dishing 2.6 assists a game too.
The Hoosiers have won enough games now I don’t feel bad about this pick. Other people you could put here are all in the same production range on similar teams OR are worse players on better teams. Reneau has been the best PF in the Big Ten with a lane often cluttered from the bad shooting on IU. Somehow, he is the only other big besides Edey on the first two All-Big Ten teams.
3rd Team All Big Ten
I gave some of the first bids of Third-Team away so let’s talk Ace Baldwin. The Two-time All A-10 player has graduated to a spot on the All Big Ten teams. Baldwin is an ace in multiple formats being a tough nosed defender with the most steals in the conference, but is also Top-15 in points per game and third in assists in the Big Ten. Penn State’s leading scorer got kicked off the team and Baldwin was there to stabilize this team as Mike Rhoades’ prized pupil surprised some people with 8 Big Ten wins.
Another good stats bad team guy is Bruce Thornton. Thornton probably locked up his spot with when he scored 22 points in an upset of no.1 Purdue. Ohio State is 3-1 since Jake Diebler took over for Chris Holtmann and Thornton scored 75 points in that stretch. The sophomore is top 10 in points and assists and deserves a spot on a team and the tough season for Ohio State means it’s 3rd instead of 2nd.
At this point I would like to mention that Dug McDaniel and Kanye Clary will not be recognized on these teams. Both had off the court issues spoil their on the court special skills. That and Michigan sucks.
With that in mind I will not be rewarding a 2nd guy from a Meh team. So that means players like Tony Perkins, Kel’el Ware, Jamison Battle, Julian Reese, etc. are out. What that also means is I have to decide between Elijah Hawkins and Dawson Garcia for a spot.
Dawson Garcia averages more points, but you can make an argument that Minnesota’s success is more due to Hawkins being there as Minnesota was awful last year and Garcia was just as good offensively that year. Hawkins is 2nd in the country in assists per game only behind Tyler Kolek.
If I want to be right I pick Garcia. If I want to be different I should pick Hawkins. I’ll conform and stick with Dawson Garcia.
Here I want to emphasize that my reveal of the third team is not in any order. These next two players are comfortably on my third team and are probably ahead of the three I just listed.
Brooks Barnhizer is a legit no. 2 on a good team unlike many of the other 2nd players I rejected earlier. In his first year as a starter, Barnhizer has stepped up and been a consistent force for a Wildcats team about to be in the Big Ten’s top 4 for the second straight year. He does a little bit of everything with 14.3 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 2.6 apg & 1.8 steals a game and has been steady with 27 double digit performances for a team full of hot & cold guys.
My final spot is reserved for a player from Nebraska. The question is who? Brice Williams has been the Huskers steadiest player. On some nights CJ Wilcher has been the star. Juwan Gary has been awesome since February. The most versatile player for Coach Hoiberg has been Rienk Mast, but we all know it has to be Keisei Tominaga as Nebraska’s champion.
The heart of the Husker team beats thru the 6’2″ 178lb guard from Japan. His shooting energizes the team and the crowd at Pinnacle Bank Arena (where they went 10-0 in Big Ten play). Often times the pull that a Tominaga cut creates easy baskets for others. You probably could tack about half the points Sam Hoiberg scores onto Tominaga’s average. Plus, Keisei is just too much fun to not be in the record books.
So final headcount brings my three teams as:
| First Team | Second Team | Third Team |
| Zach Edey Terrence Shannon Jr Boo Buie Braden Smith Jahmir Young | Tyson Walker Marcus Domask AJ Storr Payton Sandfort Malik Reneau | Dawson Garcia Brooks Barnhizer Keisei Tominaga Ace Baldwin Bruce Thornton |
Apologies to Lance Jones, Mason Gillis, and Coleman Hawkins for being too far down the pecking order on the best teams to make it. Shoutouts to Malik Hall, Roddy Gayle, Ben Krikke, Cliff Omoruyi, AJ Hoggard and all the Honorable mention guys I didn’t make a case for or against.
There’s lots of talent in the Big Ten. Sorry the third or fourth best player on your favorite team didn’t make the cut!
Thanks for reading and stay tuned as we will be releasing articles throughout March Madness including my Love/Hate list, breakdowns for all the Big Ten teams who make it, Tournament recaps and more!