Caleb McConnel - Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Semifinalist
- Thread starter MadRU
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Although I'm no expert on his competition, I don't think Caleb will repeat as B1G DPOY. He's missed some games and his impact to date was bigger last year. That said, he certainly has had some monster defensive performances this year. His health likely has plenty to do with the small dropoff from last year.
That said, if he can play the rest of the season like he did the last 15 minutes of the PSU game, he can make a late run. Hopefully, he can stay relatively healthy for the remainder of his career.
That said, if he can play the rest of the season like he did the last 15 minutes of the PSU game, he can make a late run. Hopefully, he can stay relatively healthy for the remainder of his career.
Remember, McConnell is the defending champ. Everyone is chasing him. He doesn't have to perform at the same level to repeat because "others" are being compared to his LEGEND.
Disagree. I think we are just expecting what he does so it doesn't stand out like it used to.
he has taken some heat the last couple weeks but he definitely brought his "A" game the last 15 minutes against PSU.
Prior to injury he mostly looked even better than last year. And against PSU he had at least one of those eyes-in-the-back-of-his-head steals. But if you think back, it is easy to remember some stellar defensive moments this year. I think maybe he felt a need this year to be known for more than defense.. and tried to force that to happen a bit too much.. which may have taken away from his defense.
That block in the final minute during the comeback vs Ohio St last year is my second favorite moment in our basketball program’s history behind only RHJ’s shot to beat Purdue. He came flying down the court to stuff the guy. He doesn’t do that, we don’t win. We’ll be talking about his defense for years. I can’t wait to have him come back to the RAC one day to a standing ovation and a highlight reel filled with Holy crap! moments.
I watched the last 4 minutes of the game against tOSU. this morning. His block was amazing and was a game chamger. I love watching our team play D (especially at home since I'm at most of the games) He deserves all the accolades that he gets for his D
That OSU block is definitely one of the best defensive plays I’ve ever seen. It looked like he was probably about to commit a flagrant and just got it done perfectly.
He’s a great defender and his time will come. It’s doubtful he would’ve gotten many votes though logging only 24 minutes per game.
Congrats, Caleb, that's a great honor!
Four B1G players were named semifinalists, if you are looking at the competition for Caleb to repeat as conference DPOY: Caleb, Trayce Jackson-Davis, Chase Audige, and Zach Edey. I think the conference DPOY won't be Edey, but one of the other three. Two games to go to state the case.
In conference-only play, Caleb leads in steals per game with 2.4 over Audige at 2.3.
In blocks, TJD is at 3 and Edey is at 2.7. Both are rebounding machines this season.
Four B1G players were named semifinalists, if you are looking at the competition for Caleb to repeat as conference DPOY: Caleb, Trayce Jackson-Davis, Chase Audige, and Zach Edey. I think the conference DPOY won't be Edey, but one of the other three. Two games to go to state the case.
In conference-only play, Caleb leads in steals per game with 2.4 over Audige at 2.3.
In blocks, TJD is at 3 and Edey is at 2.7. Both are rebounding machines this season.