Garza favorite to win the Wooden....

As obvious as it is that he should get it. After having seen ESPN totally ignore him lately I have a bad bad feeling about it. Like to me unless he were to avg 12 and 3 the rest of the way he should easily win it. But the powers that be at ESPN seem to think you just have to be an OK player on a top 10 team to qualify for it. How Jalen Smith is over him for it when Garza has out played him is beyond me.
Head to head here's what they've done. The teams have split each won on home floor so no advantage there.

Smith has scored 31 pts and 19 rebs. He is averaging 15.2 pts and 10.2 rebounds
Garza has scored 42 pts and 17 rebs He is averaging 23.7 pts and 9.7 rebounds

So you all tell me how is there more hype for Smith from ESPN? Race? Style of play? Smith dunks more? I don't get it. But it feels like unless Garza blows up even more then he's already been doing he may not get it. All of Hawkeye Nation will go batshit crazy if he gets screwed out of it that's all I know.
 
As obvious as it is that he should get it. After having seen ESPN totally ignore him lately I have a bad bad feeling about it. Like to me unless he were to avg 12 and 3 the rest of the way he should easily win it. But the powers that be at ESPN seem to think you just have to be an OK player on a top 10 team to qualify for it. How Jalen Smith is over him for it when Garza has out played him is beyond me.
Head to head here's what they've done. The teams have split each won on home floor so no advantage there.

Smith has scored 31 pts and 19 rebs. He is averaging 15.2 pts and 10.2 rebounds
Garza has scored 42 pts and 17 rebs He is averaging 23.7 pts and 9.7 rebounds

So you all tell me how is there more hype for Smith from ESPN? Race? Style of play? Smith dunks more? I don't get it. But it feels like unless Garza blows up even more then he's already been doing he may not get it. All of Hawkeye Nation will go batshit crazy if he gets screwed out of it that's all I know.

Doesn't matter. Garza is going to force their hand by averaging 30 and 12 the last 5 wins of the regular season.
 
It really f'ing annoys me when all these pundits ignore the Strength of Schedule. Right now analysts love Obi Toppin from Dayton...and for good reason...he is a stud. However Dayton has a kenpom SoS of #107 and Iowa is sitting at #4. How can people ignore that? The B1G ten is going to get 9-11 teams into the dance, it is easily the best conference in college bball, and Garza is the best player in the best conference.
 
It really f'ing annoys me when all these pundits ignore the Strength of Schedule. Right now analysts love Obi Toppin from Dayton...and for good reason...he is a stud. However Dayton has a kenpom SoS of #107 and Iowa is sitting at #4. How can people ignore that? The B1G ten is going to get 9-11 teams into the dance, it is easily the best conference in college bball, and Garza is the best player in the best conference.
Garza makes more winning plays per game than everyone else, but the other guys that make fewer winning plays have more flashy plays. That's somehow important....
 
It really f'ing annoys me when all these pundits ignore the Strength of Schedule. Right now analysts love Obi Toppin from Dayton...and for good reason...he is a stud. However Dayton has a kenpom SoS of #107 and Iowa is sitting at #4. How can people ignore that? The B1G ten is going to get 9-11 teams into the dance, it is easily the best conference in college bball, and Garza is the best player in the best conference.
This.
 
Iowa's got to stay relevant or at least in the top 20 with maybe a nice run.

YOu have to ask, where would this Iowa team be or what would they look like without Garza?! They run their offense thru feeding him.
 
We just have to let this play out. I will say there is NO WAY Jalen Smith gets first team all Big Ten or BIG player of the year over Garza and if he doesn’t then how does he get 1st team All American over him and so on. There will be a trickle effect because you can’t have contradictions between the conference and the nationals AA teams / awards.
 
It really f'ing annoys me when all these pundits ignore the Strength of Schedule. Right now analysts love Obi Toppin from Dayton...and for good reason...he is a stud. However Dayton has a kenpom SoS of #107 and Iowa is sitting at #4. How can people ignore that? The B1G ten is going to get 9-11 teams into the dance, it is easily the best conference in college bball, and Garza is the best player in the best conference.
Yup yup yup. And also from what Dave Revsine said it's a deep league for big guys. It's not like Garza is going against a bunch of 6'8 guys that can't play. It's a really deep league for big guys. And I wasn't bashing Smith earlier he's a great player too. I'm just saying Garza has out performed him. There's nothing subjective about it.
 
Incredible. From where he was last year until now. Wow. He's a testament to hard work and determination. Even if someone else beats him out, he'll get votes. No way was this on anyone's radar in November, maybe except Frank's.
 
It really f'ing annoys me when all these pundits ignore the Strength of Schedule. Right now analysts love Obi Toppin from Dayton...and for good reason...he is a stud. However Dayton has a kenpom SoS of #107 and Iowa is sitting at #4. How can people ignore that? The B1G ten is going to get 9-11 teams into the dance, it is easily the best conference in college bball, and Garza is the best player in the best conference.

Team success drives the narrative for a lot of these awards... this has happened in all sports in recent years. If Maryland wins the regular season conference title, then Smith gets some credit for that in some people's eyes. It's just the way it works now.
 
Team success drives the narrative for a lot of these awards... this has happened in all sports in recent years. If Maryland wins the regular season conference title, then Smith gets some credit for that in some people's eyes. It's just the way it works now.
Yeah suppose they just take after the folks that vote on the Heisman... To me it's the easy lazy way of looking at it. To me what Garza is doing is even that much more impressive because he's absolutely the focal point of everyone we play. Felt like SDSU and Nebraska did good jobs against him. Beyond that he's dominated everyone else. Teams can't just focus in on those other guys because they'll be toast otherwise.
 
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