Jeff Green - 3rd Team All-American

[JimmyHoya]

Congrats, Jeff!!!!

[voltahoya]

So absurd. He is clearly First Team talent and should have been a finalist for National Player of the Year.

[hoyabands]

congrats to jeff...but that is a joke

[ExcitableBoy]

I bet he could make 1st team next year.

[mapei]

Congrats to Jeff! The only reason he isn't higher is because he had a somewhat down year last year (for him) and thus didn't get a lot of pre-season buzz. Then he really exploded in the second half of the season this year. He's top 5 based on who is playing the best right now and for the last 6-7 weeks. But he wasn't necessarily that way earlier this season or earlier in his career, so guys with more familiarity got a bit more love.

Personally, I am ready to rank him among the all-time Hoya greats.

[PopeJohn2]

aaron gray but not roy? roy is four times the player gray is and twice the player of oden. bogus.

[brooklynhoya]

I'm kinda surprised Roy didn't take Aaron Gray's spot on that 3rd Team.

[bostonhoya05]

Here are the teams:

1st
Oden
Durant
Afflalo
Acie Law IV
Tucker, Wisconsin

2nd
Nick Fazekas, Nevada
Dudley, BC
Lofton, Tennessee
Noah, Fla
Hansborough, home today in NC

3rd
Brooks, Oregon
Al Thornton, Fl State
Gray, Pitt
Al Horford, Florida
JEFF

[mapei]

I am NOT going to feel bad because Jeff was "merely" named one of the top 15 players in the country rather than the top 5. It's an incredible honor as it is, and richly deserved. Yay Jeff!

[hifigator]

I don't have much of a problem with the first team. All of the guys aside from Oden are no brainers. And I don't think there was another center who was clearly better than Oden has been, but I think you could make a case for several guys being grouped pretty close together at center.

I would have reversed Noah and Horford. They both had solid seasons, but Horford has been the better player and has slightly better. Gray is a joke. I know he put up some good stats, but in the, admittedly very limited, number of Pitt games that I saw, he was very little above average at best.

Also, I still don't buy into Hansborough as being anything too special, but with all the press that UNC gets, he was going to make the list somewhere.

I honestly didn't know much about Brooks until yesterday. He's a decent player, but I'm not so sure that he was all that special. Although 1 full game and a few minutes of a handful of others is not really a fair way to judge a player's season.

One player I think could have eeked his way into the 3rd team is Derrick Byars. He really came on strong down the last half of the season.

Lastly, Hibbs should definitely have been above Gray.

[EasyEd]

I don't think Jeff deserved to be named to the All America team. He has SO many shortcomings and needs another year of college basketball to work on them.

[danielrog]

how did dudley make second team ahead of green thats crazy as hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SirSaxa]

danielrog said:

how did dudley make second team ahead of green thats crazy as hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Danilrog, how silly of you. Everyone knows ACC players are more athletic. And the ACC is a better conference.

BTW, I don't think Jeff cares about any of this.
Our BE POY, and BET MOP is still playing and has a shot at a national championship. If you asked if he would prefer that, or the first team AA designation, which one do you think he would choose?

[aggypryd]

The thing with these awards is that it doesn't always go to who's the most deserving. It's mostly a popularity contest.

I use this argument here all the time; Sherman Douglas made 1st team all-America his Sr. Season and Charles Smith made 3rd, yet Charles was the Player of the Year in the Big East.

[hoyaparanoia1984]

danielrog said:

how did dudley make second team ahead of green thats crazy as hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Beat me to it.

I can't really argue about the first team but Dudley ahead of Jeff Green AND Al Horford?

[hifigator]

Good point aggy, and a lot of the "popularity" comes from off-season and pre-season hype. In a lesser sense, it is very similar to Heisman voting. The unofficial list is out before the season and regardless of how great a season someone might have, if he wasn't on the radar to begin with, then it is almost impossible to make up that much ground in such a popularity test. Granted the times have changed a little, but I remember a writer making the comment after Herschel failed to win the award after his freshman and sophomore campaigns, that "no freshman or sophomre" will ever win the Heisman.

In a similar sense, some of the guys on preseason watch lists get an unfair amount of attention. The oddity is that that would explain Noah being ahead of Horford, even though Al was clearly the better player, but in Jeff's case, he was receiving a lot of accolade's before and during the season, eventually earning BE POT and Tourny MVP.

[prhoya]

As if Roy needs extra motivation for the game against OSU...

Roy, how about showing who is the #1 center?!!

[YB]

Congrats Jeff- but he deserved better, maybe 2nd team?

Staying next year and being National POY or being top-5 pick in the draft should compensate!

[cicero]

prhoya said:

As if Roy needs extra motivation for the game against OSU...

Roy, how about showing who is the #1 center?!!

If he is thinking about stuff like that going into the game he has lost the battle all ready.

[Elvado]

How can anyone quibble?

Fazekas' buzzer beater in the regional was legendary..

Gray singlehandedly led the Panthers past UCLA

If not for Dudley, Arnold gets molested...