The Monday Tipoff: Making The Case For...
It's postseason awards time.
There were reporter's notebooks given out with Iowa's Luka Garza on the cover, so you know that the campaigns are beginning to gain steam.
Iowa's men's basketball team is tied for third in the Big Ten. The women's team is third, just a game out of first place.
Garza is one of the nation's top players. Iowa's Kathleen Doyle has been a spark behind the Hawkeyes' success. Fran McCaffery and Lisa Bluder have done excellent jobs with rosters that had a lot of question marks in them at the beginning of the season.
A look at why all four should be under consideration.
So, making the case for...
Luka Garza as national player of the year
Let's be honest — if Garza is wearing a Duke jersey or a Kentucky jersey, he's getting a lot more national recognition at this point in the season.
Consider this Twitter poll from last week:
Naturally, Iowa fans were upset and let ESPN know.
The numbers tell Garza's story.
• No. 2 nationally with 238 field goals.
• No. 3 nationally with 617 points.
• No. 4 nationally at 23.7 points per game.
• No. 28 nationally with 253 rebounds, and 39th in rebounds per game at 9.7.
It's Garza's current streak, though, that should catch national attention. He has had 11 consecutive Big Ten games of 20 points or more. No other conference player has done that in more than 20 years, and no Hawkeye has done it in 49.
In a league as difficult as the Big Ten, where teams play 20 conference games, to have that streak going late in the season is something few other players could do.
Fran McCaffery as Big Ten coach of the year
This award probably goes to Penn State's Pat Chambers or Rutgers' Steve Pikiell. Penn State is in second place and ranked in the top 10 nationally, while Rutgers likely is heading to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 41 years.
You can make a solid case for Illinois' Brad Underwood. Maryland and Mark Turgeon are on the way to the regular-season title.
But if the Hawkeyes can hang in the top four in the conference, McCaffery should receive some consideration.
Iowa won at Minnesota with only eight scholarship players available. The Hawkeyes have won 18 games in a season in which they lost forward Jack Nunge (knee) and guard Jordan Bohannon (hip) to season-ending injuries. Freshman forward Patrick McCaffery has been out almost the entire season with health issues related to his 2014 treatment for thyroid cancer. Guard CJ Fredrick is out indefinitely with an ankle injury after missing two games earlier this season with a stress reaction in his foot.
The Hawkeyes would be the third seed in the Big Ten Tournament if it began today, and they're headed to the NCAA Tournament barring some collapse over the last five regular-season games.
McCaffery has done a good job of pushing the right buttons all season, and he figured out the identity of this team early. He's maintained a steadiness in dealing with this team.
Either Chambers or Pikiell should win the award, and they deserve it. But McCaffery deserves a lot of credit for the Hawkeyes' position at this point. This has been some of his best work.
Kathleen Doyle for Big Ten player of the year
The senior was one of the two returning starters from last season's team that won the Big Ten Tournament and reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.
She has had a strong season, and is a big reason behind the Hawkeyes' success.
In overall games, Doyle averages 18.5 points per game, sixth best among Big Ten players. She leads the conference with 6.3 assists per game, and ranks fifth in free-throw percentage (.787) and 10th in field-goal percentage (.450).
In Big Ten games, though, the numbers get better. She leads the conference at 20.6 points and 6.3 assists.
She has scored in double digits in 20 consecutive games, with 10 of those being games of 20 points or more.
Maryland's Kaila Charles (15 ppg.), Northwestern's Lindsey Pulliam (18.6 ppg.) and Penn State's Kamaria McDaniel (19.5 ppg.) also will get the most consideration. The voting always tends to lean toward someone from the conference champion — Maryland leads the Big Ten at 13-2, with Northwestern a half-game back and the Hawkeyes one game back.
Even if that's how the standings finish, Doyle merits a long look from the voters.
Lisa Bluder for Big Ten coach of the year
The Hawkeyes lost national player of the year Megan Gustafson, senior starters in Tania Davis and Hannah Stewart, and had a lot of unknowns on the roster.
After Sunday's win over Wisconsin, the Hawkeyes are a game out of first place in the conference at 12-3, and are 21-5 heading into the final three games of the regular season. Iowa is ranked 19th in this week's Associated Press poll and is ninth in the RPI, which means the Hawkeyes are in good position to be a host for the first weekend of the NCAA tournament.
The Hawkeyes were picked middle of the pack in the Big Ten, but until last Thursday's loss at Maryland were at the top of the conference for almost all of the season.
Monika Czinano has developed into one of the top post players in the conference. Amanda Ollinger is one of the conference's top rebounders and defenders. Czinano and freshmen McKenna Warnock and Gabbie Marshall are building a foundation for the next two seasons.
Whatever question marks were on this roster were gone a long time ago. The Hawkeyes have grown from an ugly road loss early in the season at UNI and a loss at Nebraska to start Big Ten play. Bluder, too, had an early understanding of her team's identity and has built on it. It's been a masterful job from a veteran coach.
Northwestern's Joe McKeown would seem to be the favorite for this, but Bluder will, and should, receive strong consideration.
