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I didn't totally realize that the SB Nation Big Ten blogs got together to make their All Big Ten picks, and so I whipped mine up in about 15 minutes of looking at PORPAG and KenPom and tuning it until I was relatively sure that I wouldn't look too stupid. Here are my teams:
First Team (PORPAG):
Frank Kaminsky (1)
Aaron White (3)
Sam Dekker (5)
D.J. Newbill (11)
D'Angelo Russell (2)
Kaminsky and Russell because obviously. I thought Aaron White was terrific, and he's probably a no-brainer as well. Penn State had a pulse this year and it was basically all because D.J. Newbill put the team on his back. I went back and forth on Sam Dekker and Nigel Hayes in this fifth spot; I went Dekker just because he turned the ball over less.
Second Team (PORPAG):
Nigel Hayes (6)
Dez Wells (23)
Denzel Valentine (10)
Yogi Ferrell (4)
Melo Trimble (9)
I know this is a funky list. I really like Nigel Hayes; there's a good argument to be made for him over Dekker on the first team. He's going to be a monster next year. Dez Wells and D.J. Newbill had very similar profiles, but Dez had a lot more help in Maryland. Denzel Valentine did a little bit of everything, and even was pretty good playing hero-ball when needed. Yogi was excellent but his defense drops him to the second team. Melo Trimble was nearly unstoppable.
Third Team (PORPAG):
AJ Hammons (27)
Branden Dawson (29)
Jared Uthoff (8)
Rayvonte Rice (30)
Travis Trice (7)
Another semi-funky list. Spoiler alert: Dawson ended up being my B1G DPOY and he wasn't bad offensively, either. Hammons was the rock that Purdue was based upon (also terrific defensively). Uthoff and Trice were really offensively efficient and had major contributions to two of the best B1G teams. Rayvonte Rice did everything: 120+ ORtg 25%+ Usage 10% TORate 20%+ DREB%, and shot 46.2% from three. That's incredible.
Individual Awards:
POY: Frank Kaminsky
DPOY: Branden Dawson
FOY: D'Angelo Russell
COY: Matt Painter
6th Man: Isaac Haas
Kaminsky and Russell are obvious. I liked Matt McIntyre's case for Dawson as DPOY; he guarded everyone 1-4, rebounded the heck out of the ball, and played pretty solid team defense. I think Painter did the most with what he had, and the turnaround at Purdue was really very impressive.
I screwed up the 6th man. In my defense, it's hard to figure out who counts as a true "6th man" because most quality players started here and there. For instance, if Travis Trice had been a sixth man for the bulk of the year, he's be an obvious choice. Anyways, Gabe Olaseni was better than Isaac Haas. But Haas was an important role player for Purdue, regardless.
What do you guys think? Who would you have chosen?