Alabama Basketball: Mark up POTW as another ‘doesn’t matter’

Alabama basketball freshman, Brandon Miller was the best player in the SEC last week. Miller should have been an easy choice for SEC POTW and SEC Freshman POTW. He was not chosen for either.

Instead, Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe was named the SEC’s Player of the Week. Arkansas Razorback, Nick Smith Jr. was named the SEC’s Freshman of the Week.

Tshiebwe and Smith are outstanding players. The Kentucky big man had award-worthy performances during the last week. SEC Media Release, Tshiebwe,

"averaged 23.5 points and 10.5 rebounds per game while connecting on 87.0 percent (20-of-23) of his shots from the field in victories at Florida and over Auburn.His 92.3 field goal percentage against Florida was the fourth-highest in a single game in Kentucky history."

Nick Smith Jr. averaged 25 points and 3.5 rebounds, against Georgia and Alabama. His shooting percentage against the Bulldogs was 64.3%.

In both cases, those are numbers worthy of being named ‘Player of the Week.’

Alabama Basketball Player of the Week

Then there are the numbers for Brandon Miller. Against South Carolina and Arkansas, Miller averaged 32.5 points and seven rebounds. In addition, Miller hit the basket at the end of regulation to tie South Carolina, and the winning basket in overtime for the Alabama Basketball road win.

It is possible to agree that Tshiebwe’s was as good as, or even better than Miller’s. There is no credible claim that Nick Smith Jr. deserved the Freshman Player of the Week award over Miller.

Many Crimson Tide fans believe the SEC cowardly ignored Miller’s performances in order to avoid media and general public backlash from choosing Miller.

Does this mean Brandon Miller will have no fair chance to be named SEC Player of the Year at the end of the season? That award is chosen by the SEC coaches and there can be some confidence the coaches will consider only performance on the court.

If at the end of the season, Miller is clearly deserving of the honor and is not chosen, it will be a blemish against the SEC. Alabama fans will loudly state the award will have lost credibility and does not matter.

And maybe the individual awards matter little anyway. Similar to the AP Poll, having no impact on college basketball’s National Champion, individual awards are add-ons. The team goals for Alabama Crimson Tide championships are what matters.

Note” Brandon Miller’s stats provided by Sports Reference.

Alabama Basketball is good enough this season, no extra motivation is needed. But those outside the program fueling an ‘us’ vs. them’ mentality are doing the team a favor.