(07-11-2021, 07:52 PM)81alum Wrote: Is Paige Bueckers even the best college wbb player, let alone the best college female athlete? Or is this just the UConn network's obligatory sop? Bueckers may one day be the very best--but not her freshman year. She was 35th in fg percentage, 29th in ppg, 4th in 3pt%, 14th in assists per game, 31st in a/t ratio, and she played for a team that didn't make it to the finals. The team they lost to had a star who outplayed Bueckers. Would you pick Bueckers over Aari McDonald for your pick-up game?
It was gracious of Bueckers to give that nice speech, and she certainly was not responsible for her own selection, but could this itself be an example of the kind of bias that was being discussed?
She swept the AP Player of the Year award, the Naismith Trophy, Wooden Award, Nancy Lieberman award and USBWA award, so if there's bias it's a complete consensus among independent judges.
Comparing statistics isn't necessarily fair for numerous reasons, but since you based your argument on Bueckers' statistics and brought up Aari McDonald, consider the following. Buecker scored 20.0 ppg vs McDonald's 20.6. However she shot 52.4% from the field and 46.4% from 3-pt (vs McDonald's 40.7% from the field and 34.5% from 3-point) and her assist/turnover ratio was 5.8/2.5 (vs McDonald's 4.0/3.1). Maybe you would prefer McDonald in a pickup game but that's not relevant. Who actually had better statistics last year than Bueckers across the board?
(07-11-2021, 08:24 PM)Spiny_Norman Wrote: Fans help to select the ESPY winners. All you need to know - Bueckers has 854,000 Instagram followers. McDonald has 50,500.
Fans don't help select the AP Player of the Year award, Naismith Trophy, Wooden Award, Nancy Lieberman Award or US Basketball Writers Association award.