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2006 MAC Awards, First & Second Team All-MAC
The regular season is over, so it’s time to vote on All-MAC performers. This includes Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year, 6 th Man of the Year, Defender of the Year, not to mention the first and second teams of All-MAC performers. Since the MAC is set to announce these awards later in the week, it’s time for us to post VanDelay Sports’ set of predictions.
Keep in mind I posted my thoughts on Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, and Freshman of the Year two weeks ago in my Hot or Not/MAC Awards article. Since then, as teams finished out their seasons there have been some adjustments in my predictions, and we’ll need to take another look at the Player of the Year section. Take a look below.
First Team All-MAC 2006
F/C – Joe Reitz - WMU
F – John Bowler - EMU
G – Martin Samarco - BG
G – DeAndre Haynes – KSU
G - William Hatcher – MU
This was a really, really tough call this year. Haynes, Hatcher, and Bowler were all definites in my book. Reitz was on the next cusp with Samarco really being on the bubble with 2 other guys.
The first thing that people are going to notice, is that Romeo Travis isn’t on the first-team. While, I think he could be a front-runner for an MVP-type award, I don’t think he has the stats to put him on the first-team this season. Show me his double-doubles (two), show me his 10 rebound performances (three), show me his 20-point performances (four). To me these five guys are more explosive and have put up better seasons.
Second Team All-MAC 2006
F/C – Yassin Idbihi
F – Romeo Travis
F – Skip Mills
G – Jay Youngblood
G – Calvin Cage
There’s really not a whole lot that separates the talent of players on this team from players on the first team as there was a lot of parity in the conference this year. Does a team that finished with the 8-seed deserve to have two players on the second-team? Maybe, maybe not, but you can’t dispute the performances of Cage or Idbihi this season for the Bulls.
MAC Player of the Year
I’ve waffled on this over the past two-weeks. I have pushed for William Hatcher in past columns. While I still think he’d be well deserving of the award, the end of the season has swayed my opinion.
In a close call, I think DeAndre Haynes should win MAC POTY. Haynes is having quite the bounce-back year after a less-than-stellar junior campaign. Haynes has done an admirable job running the KSU offense, scoring when needed to, but finding open shooters when not. He has also been a lock-down defender, which is partially explained by his 1.7 steals per game.
Sixth Man of the Year
There are a lot of good players coming off of the bench in the MAC this year. Two who immediately come to mind are Kevin Warzynski at Kent State and Whitney Davis at Ohio. However, my pick for sixth man of the year this season is Rob Preston of Akron. Preston adds another dimension for this Zips team, being the big guy coming off the bench, who is more than happy to fire down key 3-pointers from outside the arc. Preston’s strength is probably his 3-point shooting, but the added toughness and inside presence he gives to the Zips off the bench has been invaluable this season.
Defender of the Year
There are a lot of players in this league adept at challenging and blocking shots, not to mention the number of guys like Sonny Troutman and Brian Snider who average 2 steals per game. My pick for defender of the year is Justin Ingram of Toledo.
Ingram of course leads the team that leads the MAC in steals this year, the Toledo Rockets. Ingram along with the host of other steal-happy guards that Stan Joplin has assembled, does a good job of keeping the opposing team out-of-sync on offense. |
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By Dan Whitmyer, VanDelaySports.com Head Basketball Writer
published 03.06.06
MAC Tournament 1st Round Predictions
MAC basketball by VanDelay Sports
