SoCon Regular Season Awards: How I Voted

With the regular season complete, the collective blogosphere that partakes in Scanning the SoCon every week got together to vote on our very own conference awards. You can find the complete tabulation of all our choices here at Mocs Mania. What John Moc has put together is the total votes from all us bloggers (the official regular season awards will be out soon) for each distinction. For some added insight, here's my ballot complete with a few reasons why I chose the players I did. Enjoy.

AWARDS:

 

1st Team All SoCon

1) Andrew Lawrence

2) Trey Sumler

3) Nathan Healy

4) Jake Cohen

5) Lucas Troutman

*When I filled out my ballot, the only locks I put in for the first team were Jake Cohen and Andrew Lawrence. Cohen is my (and apparently everyone else's) POY but Lawrence was a solid second in my mind. There's a severe lack of well-rounded point guards in the SoCon. Most of the guards to show up on everyone's ballots are volume-shooting wings like Simpson, Sumler and Cochran. While I love high-scoring guards as much as the next guy, Lawrence's ability to score, distribute, rebound and close games made him an obvious choice in what I found to be a very position-based First Team. He's the best point guard in the league. 

**Healey was a name that at first was on my second team but after looking at his outlandish knack for appearing near the top of every major statistical category and the fact that most of his numbers jumped in conference play, he eventually found his way into my First Team and POY race.

 

2nd Team All SoCon

1) Raijon Kelly

2) Trevis Simpson

3) De'Mon Brooks

4) Z Mason
5) Adjehi Baru

*Fun fact: I almost completely left Brooks off my All-SoCon Teams. Looking over his season, the reigning Player of the Year did not dominate competition like I anticipated he would (underachieving was a theme in the SoCon this year). I thought I had strong cases for guys like Z Mason, Baru and Troutman to appear above him. But I think Brooks' numbers take a hit because of the talent that surrounds him. That consideration was not one I was making in my mid-season All-Conference awards (sorry for the huge demotion Groselle), but if he was on another team Brooks' numbers would be much higher. His talent is undeniable. 

**People will think I'm overvaluing CofC players again when I put Baru on my second team (he ended up on the Scanning the SoCon 3rd Team). Someone who leads the league in rebounding should automatically be an All-SoCon lock. Adjehi is also the best rim protecter and one-on-one post defender in the league. His stats don't show it but his length and intimidation led to a lot of altered shots. Also remember that he saw double-teams every possession since game two of the season. 

 

3rd Team All SoCon

1) Karl Cochran

2) CJ Reed

3) Eric Ferguson

4) Mike Groselle

5) Tim Williams

 

*I have Groselle on the 3rd Team while he ended up on Scanning the SoCon's First Team. Groselle's statistics alone are probably worthy enough for some to put him that high (I did too early in the year). But the fact that Citadel didn't win games really hurts his case for me at the end of the year. Notice how there are exactly zero Furman Paladins representatives on the list. 

**CJ Reed is underrated in my opinion. He's one of those more well-rounded point guards I said there was a lack of in this conference. Tim Williams is the only freshman to be All-SoCon because he doesn't play like one. 

Freshman All SoCon Team

1) Gee McGhee

2) Spencer Collins

3) Matt Van Scyoc

4) Kayel Locke
5) Tim Williams

*Where was all the Kayel Locke love?! Did no one watch his game against Wake Forest?! He's rough around the edges but from what I've seen of him I think Locke is going to be a stud in the SoCon for a while with the polish he already has offensively. The All-Freshman Team was the hardest category to fill this year but I thought for sure that the trio of Williams, McGhee and Locke would be unanimous. Guess not.

**Glad not everyone had to watch Van Scyoc torch CofC to recognize that he deserved consideration on this list. 

 

Player of the Year:

1) Jake Cohen

2) Andrew Lawrence
3) Nathan Healy

*Cohen: best player on the best team but also the reason why Davidson is as good as they are. Andrew Lawrence to me is the most valuable player to his team (just look at how the Cougars struggled against Auburn and Anderson without him on the floor). Healey was my third choice because of the aforementioned stat stuffing and increased play in conference.

Freshman of the Year:

1) Tim Williams

2) Gee McGhee
3) Kayel Locke

*Despite the late push by McGhee, Williams is the just the man and he should win this award from the SoCon and the press. 

 

Coach of the Year:

1) Matt Matheny

2) Bennie Seltzer

3) Bob McKillop

*We only got to vote for one Coach of the Year but if it came to a ranking this would be mine. Seltzer is very close to Matheny in my humble opinion. Remember in the preseason how terrible we all thought Samford was going to be? Seltzer has completely turned them around and is proving that having a young team is no excuse for not putting a competitive product on the court. Had Samford one the final bye spot I may have pushed Seltzer ahead of Matheny.