MIAA awards frontrunners at the halfway mark?

[NewmanAndDuquesne]

At week's end, most of the teams in the league will be 9 games into the 19-game MIAA schedule... At this point, who do you think are some of the frontrunners/races for the postseason awards?

I think that the POY discussion is really interesting. There are probably three guys in that race (Lozoya, Martin, Hawkins) but, Adarius Avery should be firmly in that conversation despite UCO being 1-7 in league play... dude is averaging 20 points/10 rebounds a game.

Coach of the Year? My vote goes to John Moseley at Lincoln. The Blue Tigers were picked to finish 9th/10th in the league and as it stands right now, they're in position for a first round bye in the MIAA Tournament.

[Btech#3]

Re: MIAA awards frontrunners at the halfway mark?

I think Joey Witthus and Cam Martin are my favorites for the POY at this point. Hawkins from NW is having a great year and could be in the mix along with Lozoya and Franklin from Pitt State, Javion Blake from Washburn and Terrence Smith from Lincoln. Avery is having a tremendous year so I agree with that but I think it would be tough to win that award when you are at the bottom of the conference. I agree I think Coach Moseley is doing a phenomenal job as is Ben McCollum from NW Mo. State. The Bearcats lost a ton of last year's team and he has mixed and matched and brought in a lot of new pieces and has them right back to where they were last year. The best Freshman I have seen is Hudgins from NW Mo. State so he would be my pick for Freshman of the Year.

[86Catillac]

[GrifFan]

Re: MIAA awards frontrunners at the halfway mark?

If the MIAA rewarded coaches for exceeding expectations, like some do, Moseley would be a strong candidate, and it's possible he'll be a strong candidate depending on how the second half goes. But it's pretty rare for COTY to be someone other than the coach of the team that won the championship. It happens - Boschee won last year for finishing second and Corn got it in his last year for a third-place finish. I think McCollum is almost a lock at this point - not only is he likely to win the title, but the coaches didn't pick him first, so he's got some of the "exceeding expectations" thing going for him too.