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COLLEGE BASKETBALL / WALL STREET JOURNAL
The College Basketball Season Without a Household Name
Zion Williamson dominated the sport in 2019.
This year, it’s a season without One Great Team or One Transcendent Player.
By Laine Higgins
Feb. 28, 2020 / Wall Street Journal
Last winter, a certain 6-foot-7, 285-pound Duke freshman dominated the court and the airwaves: Zion Williamson was quite literally the biggest thing to hit college basketball in decades. Making it to March without knowing his name would have required hibernation.
But this year, a season without One Great Team or One Transcendent Player, it’s a different story. You would be forgiven if you had no idea who might succeed Williamson as the 2020 national player of the year.
“Zion is one of those once-in-a-generation players that has the ability to overshadow a lot of other great players in college basketball,” said Seton Hall Coach Kevin Willard. “I think that’s what happened last year.”
Willard coaches senior guard Myles Powell, one of many veterans atop the watch list for the John R. Wooden Award, given to college basketball’s best player each April. None of them are even close to being household names. The other front-runners include Oregon senior Payton Pritchard, Iowa junior Luka Garza and Marquette senior Markus Howard. The least experienced of the bunch is Dayton’s Obi Toppin, a redshirt sophomore who turns 22 next week.
The top athletes in college basketball this season followed radically different paths from the freshmen that ruled in 2018-19. They were respectable prospects coming out of high school, but not so talented that they committed to blue blood programs or could leave campus for the NBA after two semesters. Instead, they stuck around. They developed. And years into their college careers they blossomed into Wooden Award contenders.
Once the Los Angeles Athletics Club started giving out the Wooden Award to men in 1977, seniors usually won with a few notable exceptions (Larry Bird in 1979 and Michael Jordan in 1984). Underclassmen started dominating during the height of the sport’s “prep-to-pro” era in the late 90s, and continued to do so after 2006, when the NBA instituted the so-called “one-and-done” rule. Seniors won from 2014 to 2017, but junior Jalen Brunson of Villanova and Williamson captured the last two.
“One of the things I love about this year is that you have a lot of throwback players. Guys that have invested at an incredibly high level at their institutions,” said Marquette Coach Steve Wojciechowski, who played at Duke in the ‘90s. “Not to sound like a dinosaur, but back in my day those were the guys that would win national players of the year.”
Wojciechowski coaches Howard, the most productive scorer in college basketball. The 5-foot-11 senior is the only college player this century to score 50 points in a single contest more than once (he’s done so thrice) and he averages a ridiculous 27.1 points per game. Howard is responsible for 32.3% of the Golden Eagles’ offense—an absurdly high share given how teams defend him.
“It’s not a matter of if he’s going to be double teamed, it’s how we react to it when he is,” said Wojciechowski. “I don’t think there’s any player that has more responsibility on his team than Markus does for us.”
There’s a player on the West Coast that comes close: Oregon’s point guard Pritchard. The Ducks’ leading scorer has barely stepped off the court in the last two seasons, recording the most minutes played in the nation as a junior (1,349) and averaging 36.3 minutes per game this year.
“I was really amazed with his competitiveness and just how hard he played the whole time,” said Willard of Pritchard, who led the Ducks with 16 points in a 71-69 victory over Seton Hall in November. “He never got a sub.”
Willard respects Pritchard’s output in part because he coaches Powell, a player with a similarly heavy workload. Although injuries have kept the guard out of a handful of games this season, Powell’s play only improves as his opponents grow fiercer. Against then-No. 3 Michigan State in November he scored 37 points and hung 34 on then-No. 5 Butler last month.
Willard hoped for Powell, ranked 105th in his recruiting class by Rivals.com, to become an impact player when he signed with the Pirates in 2015, but dialed back expectations when the guard broke his foot and subsequently gained about 50 pounds months before enrolling. Willard credits Powell’s rise from overweight freshman to explosive athlete to his “unbelievable work ethic.”
“I thought he was going to be a really great player, but he continued to work,” said Willard. “Myles is one of those guys that loves coming in the gym. Being in the gym is kind of his sanctuary.”
Ditto for Iowa center Garza, a self-proclaimed workout fiend who put on 15 pounds of muscle over the summer after modifying his diet and putting himself through three training sessions each day. At 6 foot 11, Garza was already a force in the paint for the Hawkeyes. The added strength transformed the junior into a scoring machine who averages 23.6 points per game. He muscles his way to the rim even when quadruple-teamed, as he was at one point by Michigan State on Tuesday night, and owns the fifth best offensive rating in the country, according to KenPom.com.
Perhaps the most surprising player to emerge from this jumbled college basketball season is Dayton’s Toppin. During his junior year of high school, when programs put the full court press on basketball’s elite prospects, he was a scrawny 6-foot-2 forward. Now, six years and 7 inches later, Toppin is the most electric dunker in men’s college hoops. He throws down an average of 3.3 highlight reel-worthy dunks per contest with flair reminiscent of the defending Wooden Award winner and has the Flyers on track to earn a No. 1 tournament seed.
Dayton’s No. 3 ranking in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll is not just another product of this topsy-turvy season; it’s a sign that one uber-talented payer can elevate the play of an entire roster. Whether these Wooden Award front-runners’ teams will end their seasons playing against each other or cutting down the nets in Atlanta is another story.
But with Selection Sunday coming up, there are precious few opportunities to see these game-changing players on the court before you fill out your bracket. This Saturday afternoon, the Big East will offer a two-for-one deal: Markus Howard and Marquette against Myles Powell and Seton Hall in Milwaukee.
The College Basketball Season Without a Household Name
Zion Williamson dominated the sport in 2019.
This year, it’s a season without One Great Team or One Transcendent Player.
By Laine Higgins
Feb. 28, 2020 / Wall Street Journal
Last winter, a certain 6-foot-7, 285-pound Duke freshman dominated the court and the airwaves: Zion Williamson was quite literally the biggest thing to hit college basketball in decades. Making it to March without knowing his name would have required hibernation.
But this year, a season without One Great Team or One Transcendent Player, it’s a different story. You would be forgiven if you had no idea who might succeed Williamson as the 2020 national player of the year.
“Zion is one of those once-in-a-generation players that has the ability to overshadow a lot of other great players in college basketball,” said Seton Hall Coach Kevin Willard. “I think that’s what happened last year.”
Willard coaches senior guard Myles Powell, one of many veterans atop the watch list for the John R. Wooden Award, given to college basketball’s best player each April. None of them are even close to being household names. The other front-runners include Oregon senior Payton Pritchard, Iowa junior Luka Garza and Marquette senior Markus Howard. The least experienced of the bunch is Dayton’s Obi Toppin, a redshirt sophomore who turns 22 next week.
The top athletes in college basketball this season followed radically different paths from the freshmen that ruled in 2018-19. They were respectable prospects coming out of high school, but not so talented that they committed to blue blood programs or could leave campus for the NBA after two semesters. Instead, they stuck around. They developed. And years into their college careers they blossomed into Wooden Award contenders.
Once the Los Angeles Athletics Club started giving out the Wooden Award to men in 1977, seniors usually won with a few notable exceptions (Larry Bird in 1979 and Michael Jordan in 1984). Underclassmen started dominating during the height of the sport’s “prep-to-pro” era in the late 90s, and continued to do so after 2006, when the NBA instituted the so-called “one-and-done” rule. Seniors won from 2014 to 2017, but junior Jalen Brunson of Villanova and Williamson captured the last two.
“One of the things I love about this year is that you have a lot of throwback players. Guys that have invested at an incredibly high level at their institutions,” said Marquette Coach Steve Wojciechowski, who played at Duke in the ‘90s. “Not to sound like a dinosaur, but back in my day those were the guys that would win national players of the year.”
Wojciechowski coaches Howard, the most productive scorer in college basketball. The 5-foot-11 senior is the only college player this century to score 50 points in a single contest more than once (he’s done so thrice) and he averages a ridiculous 27.1 points per game. Howard is responsible for 32.3% of the Golden Eagles’ offense—an absurdly high share given how teams defend him.
“It’s not a matter of if he’s going to be double teamed, it’s how we react to it when he is,” said Wojciechowski. “I don’t think there’s any player that has more responsibility on his team than Markus does for us.”
There’s a player on the West Coast that comes close: Oregon’s point guard Pritchard. The Ducks’ leading scorer has barely stepped off the court in the last two seasons, recording the most minutes played in the nation as a junior (1,349) and averaging 36.3 minutes per game this year.
“I was really amazed with his competitiveness and just how hard he played the whole time,” said Willard of Pritchard, who led the Ducks with 16 points in a 71-69 victory over Seton Hall in November. “He never got a sub.”
Willard respects Pritchard’s output in part because he coaches Powell, a player with a similarly heavy workload. Although injuries have kept the guard out of a handful of games this season, Powell’s play only improves as his opponents grow fiercer. Against then-No. 3 Michigan State in November he scored 37 points and hung 34 on then-No. 5 Butler last month.
Willard hoped for Powell, ranked 105th in his recruiting class by Rivals.com, to become an impact player when he signed with the Pirates in 2015, but dialed back expectations when the guard broke his foot and subsequently gained about 50 pounds months before enrolling. Willard credits Powell’s rise from overweight freshman to explosive athlete to his “unbelievable work ethic.”
“I thought he was going to be a really great player, but he continued to work,” said Willard. “Myles is one of those guys that loves coming in the gym. Being in the gym is kind of his sanctuary.”
Ditto for Iowa center Garza, a self-proclaimed workout fiend who put on 15 pounds of muscle over the summer after modifying his diet and putting himself through three training sessions each day. At 6 foot 11, Garza was already a force in the paint for the Hawkeyes. The added strength transformed the junior into a scoring machine who averages 23.6 points per game. He muscles his way to the rim even when quadruple-teamed, as he was at one point by Michigan State on Tuesday night, and owns the fifth best offensive rating in the country, according to KenPom.com.
Perhaps the most surprising player to emerge from this jumbled college basketball season is Dayton’s Toppin. During his junior year of high school, when programs put the full court press on basketball’s elite prospects, he was a scrawny 6-foot-2 forward. Now, six years and 7 inches later, Toppin is the most electric dunker in men’s college hoops. He throws down an average of 3.3 highlight reel-worthy dunks per contest with flair reminiscent of the defending Wooden Award winner and has the Flyers on track to earn a No. 1 tournament seed.
Dayton’s No. 3 ranking in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll is not just another product of this topsy-turvy season; it’s a sign that one uber-talented payer can elevate the play of an entire roster. Whether these Wooden Award front-runners’ teams will end their seasons playing against each other or cutting down the nets in Atlanta is another story.
But with Selection Sunday coming up, there are precious few opportunities to see these game-changing players on the court before you fill out your bracket. This Saturday afternoon, the Big East will offer a two-for-one deal: Markus Howard and Marquette against Myles Powell and Seton Hall in Milwaukee.
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