Tag Archives: Player of the Year

The “Value” Case for Mike Scott as ACC PoY

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In a previous post, this blog supported Mike Scott’s ACC Player of the Year candidacy by projecting his offensive efficiency over the course of the season.  This number was then compared with past PoY winners, under the assumption that awards are primarily concerned with output in the form of sheer statistical magnitude.  But another perspective is possible.  Many Hoos fans have emphasized that, points and rebounds aside[1], Scott has been the most valuable player to his team in the ACC.[2]  Let’s figure out if that’s true.

We’ll compare the percentage of points, rebounds, and EFF[3] contributed to his team’s totals by each of the following ACC PoY candidates: Mike, Tyler Zeller, Harrison Barnes, John Henson, Michael Snaer, Mason Plumlee, and Terrell Stoglin.[4]  If you want to skip to the good stuff, scroll past the relevant team EFF tables (Hoos’ can be found here).  Kinda like to show my work.  Old habits die hard.

In no particular order:[5]

DUKE UNC

FLORIDA STATE

MARYLAND

[% of Team Contributions]

Mike finished second in % of both team points and rebounds.  But his consistent placement at the top of the standings is unparallelled; each player ahead of him in points and rebounds respectively is in last place in the other category.[6] This type of well-rounded statistical contribution should draw the attention of the ACC PoY selection committee.

Tyler Zeller edged Mike in individual EFF, but Mike finished first in EFF team contribution with more than 125% of Zeller’s percentage.  This is exactly what this post was attempting to establish.  If you want to compare plain ol’ statistics, Mike Scott is an elite ACC player who at the very least is in a dead heat with Zeller for the PoY award.  But if the value of individual players to their teams is taken into account, no one else is even in Mike’s league.

 

  1. [1] even though Scott likely wins these too ↩
  2. [2] even though it’s called the ACC “Player of the Year” and not “MVP.”  MVP is so pervasive in sports that it’s just generally presumed ↩
  3. [3] explanation of EFF here ↩
  4. [4] This was kind of an arbitrary list.  There was a surprising lack of compiled lists of ACC PoY candidates on the interwebs ↩
  5. [5] except Maryland at the bottom ↩
  6. [6] gave myself a gold star for noticing this ↩