It’s All-Big Ten season, and the Buckeyes were not to be denied.
Junior forward Deshaun Thomas was named First-Team All-Big Ten by the media and the coaches, while junior point guard Aaron Craft was named to the first team by the media and second team by the coaches.
The Buckeyes' All-Big Ten duo.Thomas, the conference’s leading scorer at 19.7 points per game, and Craft join Michigan’s Trey Burke and Indiana’s Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller on the media’s All-Big Ten team.
The All-Big Ten team as selected by the coaches was Thomas, Burke, Oladipo, Zeller and Tim Hardaway Jr. of Michigan.
Michigan State's Keith Appling Gary Harris and Adreian Payne and Wisconsin's Jared Berggren were named to the coaches second team with Craft.
Burke was named Big Ten Player of the Year and Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan was named the Coach of the Year.
Thomas was the engine to Ohio State’s offense all season. The Buckeyes finished the season 23-7 overall and 13-5 in the Big Ten, tied for second with Michigan State.
Craft has been an energetic presence for Ohio State at both ends of the floor since he stepped foot on campus. That did not change this season. He averaged 9.7 points, 3.6 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game.
Craft was denied the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year award for a second consecutive season, losing out to Oladipo. But Craft and fellow point guard Shannon Scott were named to the All-Defensive team. Oladipo, Berggren and Michigan's Jordan Morgan rounded out the defenders.
Craft was the catalyst of the Big Ten’s second-best defense. He averaged two steals per game, part of the more than 13 turnovers and 6.5 steals the Buckeyes created per game. Scott, a sophomore, added more than one steal per game. Ohio State limited opponents to 58.7 points per game this season.
Craft and Scott have been the leaders in the Buckeyes’ current five-game win streak.
Ohio State is the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament this week and will play the winner of Purdue-Nebraska on Friday night at 6:30 in Chicago.
Comments
Well-earned by both. Congratulations & good luck in the Tournaments!
Bo Ryan? Really? Really?
Wow you rather Tom Crean?
Ohio State's band SLAUGHTERED Michigan's band. If this were a football game, it would have been Florida State vs. Savannah State. - SB Nation following OSU vs. UM 2012
I'm guessing the vote would be for a coach who came within an inch of a co-B1G title with one scorer and no post player.
So then why not Matta? (rhetorical question)
My thinking is you either go for the first or second place coach or a coach that exceeded expectations. At the beginning of the season where did you have Wisconsin? 4-6 range. Where did they finish... 5th. Not a huge season for Wisconsin. In fact just a typical Wisconsin season IMO.
They were really just one msu game away from being in the same position as we were. They finished 5th but they were only two games removed from winning the conference, that's a pretty good season.
I kind of would. His team finished in first and while he may not be a great in game coach or post game handshaker he has proven to be a great recruiter and a good enough coach. Why give Bo Ryan props for recruiting in an average fashion and finishing tied for fourth. The last four years Ryan has three fourth place finishes and one third place finish. He has never been closer then two games back for the last four years. Give me Izzo, Matta, Mccaffrey, or even Crean over big Bo.
Roll with it.
Agreed! Ryan also had 3 seniors and 2 juniors in the starting 5. So, a lot of the same players from last years' 4th place team. And he should be docked some votes for some of the games he made people watch.
Belein, coach k, Izzo call Craft one of the best defenders they've seen in 30 years
.....that gets you 2nd place in this league. B1G! B1G!
i wonder who Crean voted for. He's spiteful enough to vote that way, I would bet
WB
BO FRIGGIN' RYAN? Hell I would have voted Northwestern's coach before him.
Here we go again. Just remember Jim Tressel never got it. Maybe that's a good omen.
Thad has two. You could argue that he should have more.
"YOLO" = I'm about to do something extremely ignorant/stupid & I need an excuse to do it.
What a freakin' joke, no Craft for defensive POY, and Bo "Deal withIt" Ryan as Coach of the Year. Ryan must be the BB version of Ferentz
Bo Ryan? What the hell did he even do?
Wisconsin lucked out and got to play Indiana and Michigan only once, they beat both of them, and STILL found a way to only finish tied for third
Bo Ryan is a solid coach, but he is very much overrated. He is indeed the basketball Ferentz. What has Bo Ryan ever really done in the NCAA tourney? All I see are a bunch of early exits and no final four's.
Ferentz and Ryan...I guess after removing the the ice pick from my eyes, is why I can't clearly see why these two get recognized.
The media's all-B1G was the same as ours.
http://www.elevenwarriors.com/2013/03/20353/the-dubbies-handing-out-the-b1g-hoops-hardware
Michael, why do you act surprised?
First things first, congratulations to DT and Craft (2nd team coaches?) for the deserved nods. Congrats again to Craft and Shannon Scott for making the all-D team. Figured AC would make that again easily, so great to see Scott get it...he's making his mark.
Now....
Bo Ryan?!
"Success - it's what you do with what you got" - Woody Hayes
Shows you highlight blocks gets you defensive player of the year.
Oladipo was much more than highlight blocks
That's not what I said.
Alright, Oladipo earned his DPOY award by much more than highlight blocks
Anyone else getting a Gmail link in the first line?
Yes
35 hours to Pasadena! Go Bucks!
Fixed.
Bo Ryan's response to those of us doubting whether or not he deserved coach of the year?
"Deal with it!!"
absolutely disgusting that bo ryan gets coach of the year........he took a team that was expected to finish 5th and finished 4th, not that big of deal...wisconsin had the easiest big ten schedule out of the teams that finished in the top 5 and still managed to under perform even when they were in position to clinch 1st place for themselves by winning out......personally feel matta deserved it the most this year......with 1 true scorer and then a guessing game for the rest of the points they finish 2nd.......that after losing sullinger and he should've won COY hands down.......also craft getting snubbed for the second straight year after completely disrupting offenses especially key players on opposing teams....i'm sorry just bc he doesn't block shots and doesn't dunk does not mean he shouldn't have at least had a split defensive POY with Olidipo..........for some reason we don't get the recognition by the coaches and media but when they stumble or have bad games boy does it get over-emphasized by the media.......
It's all about exceeding expectations!
"Don't put syrup on shit, and tell me it's pancakes"
No matter how sh*tty the tour is, it's always tough to leave.
Everyone arguing against Ryan saying all he did was meet expectations. Did Matta exceed his expectations? We were ranked top 5 in the country at the start of the season. What both of these coaches did were amazing. I dont like Ryan but to try and say Matta deserves it more is not very true.
we were over-ranked to start the season and therefore exceeded where we should've started out.....the buckeyes weren't really a top 5 team to start out and as we have seen all year no team really has become the 1 to beat........yet we were probably a top 20 team that matta took into the top 10 range.....that's pretty good by my book.......
Wisconsin was unranked and he took them to a ranked team. Both were very deserving but nothing should be taken away from Ryan besides that he is a douche
I am ok with almost anyone for COY other that the immature jerk from some backwater in IN.
Not to be forgotten was at the bottom of that first article was Sam Thompson being named one of 12 players to receive one of the Sportsmanship Award. Always nice to see our players recognized for good sportsmanship.
"The question isn't who's going to let me, it's who's going to stop me."
Aaron Craft was robbed. I'm betting he just scheduled an off-season workout program that includes cinderblocks, cheetahs, a raw steak, and bungee cords.
Just goes to show B1G basketball awards are as misguided as the football awards. Craft would've only won DPoY because he's white and has rosy cheeks, not because he's the best on ball defender in the nation. What a joke. Bo Ryan = Kirk Ferentz. Trey Burke as PoY? Give me a break. Is this the same Burke from a Meatchicken squad that muddled through a 5-5 finish to the season, the very same Burke that choked away a co-B1G championship at the foul line in typical scUM fashion? B1G awards = Clown show!... And you're a kicker!!!
Bo Ryan is a real good coach but; this year the COY is should be Thad Matta. Sure I'm biased but; he loses one of the best players in the country off of a Final Four team and damm near repeats (again) as the B1G regular season champs; go figure. I guess all he can do is run the table in Chi-Town; Go Bucks!
"Fate has cards that it don't want to show"
All hostility aside, and I have some on this... there should not be any voting until the Big 10 tournament AND the NCAA's are done. There is a lot of basketball yet to be played. This is like an all star game 1/2 way thru the season.
How the hell do Bo Ryan win COY and Craft not make coaches first team? The BIG awards are a BIG joke.
I agree with most of it, and you can make a case for Bo, since he lost his starting PG right before the season started, but the one that irks me the most is Oladipo over Craft for DPotY. Yes, I'm biased, and I can admit it, however Oladipo didn't impress me, especially as the conference slate went on. He clearly is a freak athlete and probably a "more rounded" player than Craft, but he wasn't at all as good of a defender as everyone was making him out to be. He gambled on passing lanes and got high flying dunks, but couldn't stop people from driving consistently or even lock down a position.
Unfortunately winning DPOY has very little to do with who is the best defender. It's about who has the best highlight tape.
I think it was all politics in regard to Crean.
Thing about this one, is that Hardaway should not have been first team over Craft, Payne, Bergeren, or Harris. Talk about being overrated due to your name. Geez.
I looked closer at these awards and besides some of the obvious and baffling choices, how in the heck were Deshaun Thomas and Cody Zeller not unanimous selections for the Coaches 1st team? Are you kidding me?
And guess who was the only non-unanimous selection for the Media 1st team? Aaron Craft.