Watch the Awards Show if you have not already!
FINAL VOTE BREAKDOWN:
Tallest Player–Brooks-50%, Bennett-33%, Parker-16.7%, Brown, Jr.-0%
I still do not know how Brooks won, the committee was informed of the listed heights on their ballot. Still, I am glad he won, he definitely deserves it. I do suspect a fifth column of B.A. Fan Club voters in “The Committee” influenced this.
Best Dunk–Bjorklund v UNO-38.5%, Bjorklund v NDSU-23.1%, Bjorklund v Denver, 23.1%, Brooks v UNO, 15.4%
Defensive POY–Bjorklund 100%, Brooks+Burt+Lindberg 0%
Winter Coach–Ruth Sinn 7.7, Rico Blasi 7.7%, John Tauer 84.6%, Joel Johnson 0%
To be completely fair, the ballots were due before the end of the hockey season, I do not think it would have mattered however. Either way, Congratulations to Dr. John Tauer I hope you enjoy the trophy and certificate dropped off at your office.
Best Single Game–Bjorklund v UMKC 28.6%, Brooks v Denver 7.1%, Anders v St Francis 64.3%, Miller v SIU-E 0%
Best Opposing Player Single Game—Max Abmas 100%, Baylor+Bruns+Massner 0%
Newcomer of the Year–Bennett Kwiecinski 7.1%, Ben Nau 21.4%, Dom Martinelli 71.4%
Team MVP–Riley Miller 50%, Parker Bjorklund 14.3%, Anders Nelson 35.7%
Final Thank You’s:
First, all the student-athletes who participated. Matt and I were tremendously appreciative of their time, and thoughtful responses they gave to our questions, even the goofy ones. Looking back on the show, the idea of Family came up quite a bit, whether it was a teammate, brother, parent, or neighbor, this was a crew that obviously valued playing for Family. This team had the same starting 5 as the prior season which in today’s game is super rare. As Anders mentioned in the video, this consistency over time was what gave this team a chance to win a game…or two…or 10 in their first D1 season. This was a special group making the jump to D1.
Second, I want to thank Todd Buckingham+RTS for providing me the opportunity to cover UST basketball. I hope they keep me around, I have a ton of fun doing this, this organization is a lot of fun to be a part of. This platform has allowed me to influence UST Hoops to be a little bit better in at least two ways: 1.) @UST_MBB (which still does not follow me) now tweets out the score live during the game, which they did not do before I started doing it. 2.) Halftime and intermission contests will be drastically improved for next season according to my sources.
Third, to “The Committee.” For being loosely assembled by me (largely) did a great job picking the winners for last night’s awards show. I tried to be as transparent as possible regarding possible biases, family ties, conflicts of interests, etc. I am honored that some people actually even reached out for me to consider them as potential voters for next season’s UST Basketball Awards.
Last, Matt Weimann for agreeing to work on this first annual awards show with me. Next years awards show will be better I promise, we will have two microphones.