Filed under: ACC Player of the Year | Tags: ACC Player of the Year, Greivis Vasquez
It’s not Jon Scheyer. Sorry. Instead, the award belongs to Greivis Vasquez.
I’ve said all along, the award was Scheyer’s all season long. He was clearly, for a long time, the best player in this league, but over the last month, things began to slowly change.
Scheyer got cold and started taking many, many, many stupid shots (over one stretch he was 8-43 from two-point range). Vasquez on the other hand just got better and better.
Of course Greivis had a rough start to his senior season. He failed to score in double-figures in his first four games and turned the ball over a stunning 30 times in Maryland’s first eight games. They were 5-3 at the time.
Yet, as the season went on, his numbers improved and by the latter half of the ACC season, he clearly was the best player, yet I still had him and Scheyer neck-and-neck.
Problem was, all the stats were pretty much equal (prior to tonight’s game):
SCORING: Vasquez (19.5), Scheyer (18.8)
FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE: Vasquez (43.7), Scheyer (41.7%)
THREE-POINTERS MADE: Scheyer (79), Vasquez (58)
THREE-POINT PERCENTAGE: Scheyer (40.1%), Vasquez (37.9)
FREE THROWS MADE/ATTEMPT: Scheyer (141-159), Vasquez (113-134)
FREE THROW PERCENTAGE: Scheyer (88.7), Vasquez (84.3)
REBOUNDS: Vasquez (4.8), Scheyer (3.4)
ASSISTS: Vasquez (6.4), Scheyer (5.4)
ASSIST-TO-TURNOVER: Scheyer (3.1), Vasquez (1.9)
So I decided that Wednesday night’s game was going to be the final factor. You knew whoever won, it was probably going to be either Vasquez or Scheyer responsible for their teams win. Of course, neither had a great game, but in the end, Vasquez came through.
While Vasquez was hitting the game-clinching, look-what-I-pulled-out-of-my-ass lay up, Scheyer fumbled his team’s chances away with a awful three-point shot (missed) and two drives deep into the trees, forcing up two tragic shots.
While it may not be fair to pick this game out to declare Vasquez the POY, especially when you considered Scheyer got the best of Vasquez three weeks earlier in Durham, even as the most bias-Duke lover, I can’t overlook the simple fact that Vasquez leads Jon in points, rebounds and assists and he came through at the end.
My argument in regard to this game was, I couldn’t given Greivis the award if he got beat twice by Scheyer this season. Instead, he won and he won it for his team.
With the ACC Regular season crown on the line, the conference player of the year came through (yeah I know, it’s technically a “share” of the regular season crown and yeah I know, the season isn’t even over yet and both Duke and Maryland could lose this weekend). What more can be said?
Congratulations to Greivis Vasquez. Your my pick for ACC player of the year. Let’s hope for a third match-up in the ACC Tournament Finals.
4 Comments so far
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Based on last nights game, it is premature to say Vasquez is player of the year. Remember, we still have one more game. Despite some dumb plays by Scheyer, Scheyer and Vasquez were even last night – on Maryland’s home court in the last game of the season. As I recall, Scheyer competely outplayed Vasquez in Durham.
Whoever wins the award doesn’t really matter – a strong case could be made for either player.
Comment by Ches March 4, 2010 @ 9:44 amFor now, my 1st team All-ACC is: Scheyer, Singler, Vasquez, Delaney and Booker.
You make a great point. However, one more game won’t make a difference to me. The fact is, Vasquez leads Jon in points, assists and rebounds. You could argue Scheyer leads in FG, FT, 3-PT shooting percentage, but Vasquez is actually ahead now in FG %.
If Scheyer led all three of those categories and they split the season series, Vasquez wouldn’t even be in the picture. I also took into count that Vasquez has less to work with at Mary.
The 1st Team All-ACC looks good. I’m going to put my together after this weekend. Right now though I’d probably have Al-Farouq Aminu on over Singler. Kyle has looked great the past couple weeks, but let’s not forget he was shooting in the low 40′s for most of the season. Meanwhule, Aminu is the only player in the ACC averaging a double-double.
Comment by Rob March 4, 2010 @ 9:58 amAs Terps fan, gotta give you props for writing such an unbiased article. I was at Comcast for the game, and Scheyer was shut down for the first half. He picked it up big-time in the second stanza, but played poorly in the last few minutes; at the same time Vasquez picked it up and led Maryland to the win.
The Virginia game this afternoon was interesting for Vasquez; he singlehandedly kept the Terps up a few buckets by hitting two or three clutch threes, then made bad decisions on consecutive plays to allow the ‘Hoos within one. Then he cooly slammed the door on them at the end.
All in all, I agree, Vasquez was the ACC player of the year. He performed when it counted, he was a better all-around player than Scheyer, and he had much less talent on his team. If you look at his game log, you pretty much nailed an important point; his first four games pull his numbers down a bit, and they were unimportant games. If not for them, he would be averaging over twenty a game.
Comment by SoccerKowboy March 6, 2010 @ 5:56 pmSoccerkowboy,
I too am a Terps fan. Good that you gave props to Rob for writing an unbiased article. However, instead of gloating over Vasquez’ year and repeating essentially what Rob already said, how about showing a little more class and commenting on the great year Scheyer had? It really is close between the two and Scheyer does have a better supporting cast. If not for that, Scheyer’s stats would probably be more impressive. In saying that, grats to Scheyer and Duke for another great year.
Comment by cropduster March 10, 2010 @ 6:34 am