The Back and Forth: College Hoops POY?

Stephen Curry? Blake Griffin? Jeff Teague? Tyler Hansbrough? Who do you have?

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Is Blake Griffin the front-runner for POY?

What is "The Back and Forth?"

Super Bowl's over. Pitchers and catchers are soon, sure, but legit games don't start until early April. You could get all a-twitter about the NFL Draft, but that's not 'till late April. Simply put, then: your sporting focus right now should be college basketball. We could go nuts with bubble teams already, but Mr. Lunardi covers that quite well and that's not a word you should Google before the third week of February. The discussion now will be on Player of the Year.

Sure, maybe this is a term you shouldn't Google 'till the second week of March, but a little speculation never hurt anyone, ya know? Your debaters: ESPN The Magazine associate producer Ted Bauer, a Georgetown alum who watches enough college basketball to choke a horse and Eric Angevine, a co-editor of Storming the Floor and contributor to this site, who watches enough to likely choke an elephant. Think it's a cut-and-dried debate between Griffin and Curry? Naw.

BAUER:
The most logical place to start has gotta be Jeff Teague, right? I think everyone knew Wake had talent a few years ago, when they got all those recruits and were thisclose to nabbing Patrick Patterson. But for them to be this good—like, bonafide-could-win-it-all-with-a-break-or-two (which is really the same boat everyone is in, 'cept maybe UNC)—is surprising. There are a bunch of dudes on the Deacs this year, but Teague is the star. Now, a few reasons he won't get it: (a) if you took him off Wake, they'd still be Top 4 in the ACC (I think; I could be wrong) and "POY" should be a player that his team can't live without ; (b) Wake seems to play down to their competition sometimes, and Teague is guilty of the same problem and (c) if you search him on YouTube, the top hit is slugged as a dunk where he gives someone "Arabian Goggles." Then if you go look up what that means, you'll get incredibly embarrassed and want absolutely nothing to do with Jeff Teague anymore.

ANGEVINE:
Teague is a hell of a player, no doubt. He's like the inverse of the player I first considered, Tyler Hansbrough. Where Teague started the season kind of off the radar, then worked his way into the conversation on merit, Hansbrough started the season high on this list and has tumbled as his team struggled in the ACC. When the world at large gives you the laurel wreath to wear, it's sort of a not-so-subtle hint that you're supposed to shove off to the next level and show us what you can do, and Hansbrough didn't do that, so now he's suffering from over-exposure and high expectations, just like young actors sometimes do in Hollywood. He's still got a "motor" and "hustle", but everyone's seen it already, so they're looking for the next fresh face. Whether he's a Johnny Depp who can succeed as a mature talent or a Judd Nelson who would be lucky to get a Lifetime movie-of-the-week is a story best told in the Association at this point. Besides, he's one of SIX Tar Heels averaging double figures. When everyone on the team is special, nobody is.

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Jeff Teague has been good for the Deacs, but their tendency to play down to opponents could hurt his candidacy.

BAUER:
I'll see you one Tar Heel and raise ya another. I gave some thought—albeit briefly—to Ty Lawson. Wake fans might think this is preposterous (and it may well be) but Lawson seems almost as fast (not faster) end-to-end as CP3 was when he played in Winston-Salem. Sick. At the beginning of the season, in all the Tournaments where UNC was trucking people, my thought was "This team will go far as Lawson takes 'em," meaning like, Hansbrough could have a 29 and 15 game in the Sweet 16 and UNC could lose if Lawson was corralled by the team's opposing PG. I don't feel the same way right now, although I do kinda think that if UNC wins the ACC Tournament pretty much going away, it's going to get the six wins it needs for Roy's second ring—and I feel like that can't happen without Lawson playing at his best for those three weeks. So if Lawson is really important to the Heels, and the Heels—at least talent-wise—are the best team out there, well, it should be him, right? Naw. I think he's been taken off his game by players lesser than him, which isn't the mark of a truly great player, and like you said, everyone on the Heels is a baller, so let's stop discussing Heels.

ANGEVINE:
I'm going to shed the east coast bias here and look to the desert for my next candidate. Arizona State guard James Harden has been high on everyone's watch-list since day one of the season, and he definitely belongs there. He's a big-time NBA prospect at 6'5" and around 220 lbs. He's one of those guys who defies the conventional tags applied to backcourt players—"slasher", "shooter" or "passer"—because he can do all three at a level that baffles defenders. On top of that, he's strong enough to post up inside from time to time, and athletic enough to rattle the rim on a nasty dunk. This all sounds good, so why not pick him? I guess I'd have to call it leadership issues. While James is filling up the stat sheet, his team is still losing, including back-to-back downers at home against Washington and Washington State. Harden is an exceptional player, but he's just not taking the reins and driving his team where he wants it to go. A PoY should do that.

BAUER:
I like Harden (good insertion) but you're right, what the heck is up with ASU? What the heck is up with the entire Pac-10? I thought UCLA would at least be a Top 8 team. If I was good at segues, this is where I'd start talking about Darren Collison, who is legitimately quite good at basketball. However, putting him in a POY discussion seems laughable for any number of reasons (cue the LA peanut gallery) so I'm gonna throw one more name out there before we get to the big guns. It pains me 'cuz I went to Georgetown, but what about DeJuan Blair? I was bored at work a few days ago and watching this Pat Summitt teaching video. She says "crash the boards" roughly every 8 seconds. You could go and say, "Women's game is different than men's!" and you'd be right, but she has 999 wins, which is fairly impressive, so I'll assume crashing the boards is important. Blair might do that better than anyone in the nation. I think Pitt has a legitimate chance to win it all, too. (Ugh.) I also like the fact that he grew up like 400 feet from Pitt's campus, meaning Dixon knows how to keep the talent at home. Hey, I just mentioned Dixon and Howland in one paragraph. That's crazy! I digress. The reason it can't be Blair? Isn't Pitt really Levance's team? When he went down last season, they fell apart. As he goes, they go. (Or so it seems.) I think to be a POY, you need to represent the "he" in that sentence.

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Tyler started the year as the almost-definite No. 1, but he doesn't seem to be anymore.

ANGEVINE:
I watched Blair play in person this week, and he is probably top dog in the race for POY in the Big East, for sure. Which brings us to another guy who's on everybody's short list: last year's Big East Player of the Year Luke Harangody. Gody actually has better overall numbers than Blair, going for an average of 25 points and 13 rebounds to DeJuan's 15 and 12. In the head-to-head meeting, however, Blair topped 20 in each category, leaving Gody and his team in the dust. That loss was just part of a six game losing streak for the Irish. Throw in the loss to St. John's and they're 3-7 in the Big East. No doubt that Harangody's trying to put this team on his back, but we can't really reward him for trying and failing.

BAUER:
I hate to be a hater, but Harangody is not as good as advertised. Thabeet even said it in our preview issue. Roy Hibbert, who was an offensively-challenged center, owned him last year. I'm gonna throw out another dude, then let's get to the big guns: how about Jodie Meeks? SEC is in a "down year" (their football side is doing well though, eh?) and Meeks went off for 54 in a game this season. That's always fun. He also caused Gilespie to flip on a reporter, Boeheim-defending-GMac style. Also always fun! Who am I even kidding? A player from the SEC being POY this season? I gotta stop staying up late watching I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Who else you got? Let's talk bonafides!

ANGEVINE:
Alright. Time to push all my chips to the center of the table. My vote for POY goes to Davidson's Stephen Curry; he of the skinny frame and ninja mindset. In a way, Curry is the standard bearer for a lot of other guys of his ilk. St. Mary's guard Patty Mills might have made this list if he hadn't broken his hand. Tennessee-Martin's Lester Hudson could have entered the conversation if his Skyhawks ever played anyone with a decent RPI on national TV. But Dell's oldest kid is the one-of-a-kind prototype those other guys are bound to follow.

He leads the country in scoring with nearly 29 points per game. He's dishing out more than six assists and snatching three steals per game. Davidson is cruising toward a second straight undefeated season in the SoCon under his leadership, and could probably grab an at-large bid should they falter in the league tournament. Simply put, Stephen Curry is the sort of player you tell your kids about, and his smooth stroke, killer instinct, and court vision make him my choice for '08-'09 Player of the Year.

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Will ASU's inconsistency hurt Harden's view among college basketball observers?

In fact, knowing who your choice is going to be, I'd even put up him up in a sibling rivalry 2-on-2 contest. His little brother Seth ain't bad, either.

BAUER:
Yea, I'm taking Blake Griffin. I think Seth and Stephen could run him and Taylor, sure—provided they could get inside. I'll keep this thing short and simple: the guy is a double-double machine. He's helped make Oklahoma relevant in yet another sport (I know, they're not good in big-time football games of late). He could join Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green in shaping the OK City Thunder into a helluva team in five or six years. He once filmed his life for us with a camcorder. The Sooners are gonna make the Sweet Sixteen, then maybe the Elite Eight (depends on their draw, "obvi") and maybe even Detroit. Finally, watch this. Or even read this. Like a Griffin thunder slam to your dome, this thing is o-v-e-r.

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