Jimmer Fredette deserve to be Player of the Year? A lot of people may think that honor should go to Kemba Walker and Walker does have a strong case for POY, but Jimmer is definitely deserving. Jimmer beat Kemba statistically all season long. He average more points per game and had a better shooting percentage from the field and from behind the arc. I’m not a stat person though. I don’t think that stats necessarily justify a person winning a major award such as POY; I think that you have to look at a person’s impact on their respective teams. With that said I think that Jimmer was BYU this year. Without him no one would have been talking about BYU possibly being a 1-seed in the tournament and BYU definitely wouldn’t have made it to the Sweet 16. Jimmer averaged 25ppg during most of the season, but after Brandon Davies was dismissed from the team that number jumped to 34ppg. He literally put BYU on his back and carried them to the Sweet 16. What’s most impressive about that last statement is that he averaged more points even though his opponents constantly double teamed him. Every team that played BYU knew that Jimmer was their only dependable scoring option and I’m sure the game plan was to stop him. Despite knowing that teams were focused on shutting him down he still went out and had monstrous games night after night.
Now I’m not taking anything from Kemba Walker he has definitely been the heart of UCONN through their current run through the NCAA tournament and he was a vital part of them winning the Big East tournament. I thought that he deserved to be Big East POY and I would have no argument if he was voted AP POY. What I’m saying is that the Associated Press didn’t get it wrong by choosing Jimmer instead. For every valid reason that Kemba should be POY there is no valid reason why Jimmer should not be POY. Both players are deserving. Although Kemba was not voted Big East POY or AP POY he should find some comfort in the fact that he will probably be a better pro player than both Hansbrough and Fredette.