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The Big Ten Conference announced its all-conference awards last night with many of the usual suspects taking home the hardware. Purdue's Rapheal Davis was named Defensive Player of the Year and A.J.Hammons earned a second team all-Big Ten nod. Jon Octeus even received honorable mention in his only year in the Big Ten. Today we announce the SB Nation all-Big Ten teams.
Once again, we have to thank the rest of the Big Ten SB Nation Bloggertariat for compiling these awards. This year's contributors:
Hammer & Rails - Purdue
Travis Miller, Andy Zimmerman, Andrew Ledman, Andrew Holmes
Crimson Quarry - Indiana
Ben Raphel
The Champaign Room - Illinois
Jim Vainisi
Bucky's 5th Quarter - Wisconsin
Phil Mitten
Corn Nation - Nebraska
Keith Yaple
InsideNU - Northwestern
Henry Bushnell
On the Banks - Rutgers
Kevin Recio
Maize N'Brew - Michigan
Drew Hallett
The Daily Gopher - Minnesota
UStreet
The Only Colors - Michigan State
Joe Tuohy
Black Shoe Diaries - Penn State
Chad Markulics
BT Powerhouse - Big Ten
Thomas Beindit
Black Heart Gold Pants - Iowa
Ross Binder
Thank you, everyone for contributing a ballot. We have all schools represented here except for Maryland (Testudo Times) and Ohio State (Land-Grant Holyland). We still have and pretty solid representation of what the league's bloggers think of this year's best players.
First, the individual awards:
Big Ten Player of the Year:
Frank Kaminsky - Wisconsin Badgers
This is not a surprise. I received 16 ballots total this year and 14 named Kaminsky the Player of the Year. The "runner-up" was Ohio State's D'Angelo Russell, who received the POTY nod on the other two ballots. Both players were the only unanimous selections for the all-Big Ten First Team.
Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year:
A.J. Hammons - Purdue Boilermakers
Unlike the official Big Ten award, which went to Rapheal Davis, Hammons takes home the SB Nation award with 13 of the 16 votes. Davis, Nnanna Egwu, and Branden Dawson each took one of the other three votes. I don't have a problem with Hammons here.
Big Ten Freshman of the Year:
D'Angelo Russell - Ohio State Buckeyes
All 16 ballots were in agreement here, as Russell was the Freshman of the Year by unanimous agreement. I don't think there is any question here. He probably gets unanimous Freshman of the Year if there were 60 ballots.
Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year:
Gabriel Olaseni - Iowa Hawkeyes
This is the first time I have done a Sixth Man award, and the voting here was the most varied across the Ballots. Olaseni received 10 of the 16 votes, with Isaac Haas taking three of the remaining six. Lourawls Nairn Jr., Vic Law, and Bronson Koenig took the other three votes with one each.
Big Ten Coach of the Year
Matt Painter - Purdue Boilermakers
Painter takes the award with nine votes on the 16 ballots. The rest of the Big Ten bloggers give him some well deserved recognition for basically resurrecting a dead team at the end of December. Mark Turgeon had four of the other seven votes, with Bo Ryan getting three. I like Bo Ryan, but anyone could have coached that Wisconsin team to the Big Ten title. What Painter and Turgeon did with teams expected by some to finish at the bottom of the league was damned impressive.
Now, onto the teams. The way the teams were picked was as follows: I asked each ballot to name a first team, second team, and third team. A player received three points for a first team vote, two for a second team, and one for a third team. Here are the results:
First Team all-Big Ten:
Frank Kaminsky - Wisconsin
D'Angelo Russell - Ohio State
Kevin Ferrell - Indiana
Aaron White - Iowa
D.J. Newbill - Penn State
As previously stated, Kaminsky and Russell were unanimous first-team selection. White was very close, notching 44 of 48 possible points. Ferrell had 42 and Newbill gets a well deserved First Team award with 40 of 48 possible points. This is the second year in a row Ferrell has been voted as a First Team selection by the SB Nation blogs. Newbill was a Second Team selection last year along with Kaminsky, while White was a Third Team selection.
Second Team all-Big Ten:
Melo Trimble - Maryland
Dez Wells - Maryland
A.J. Hammons - Purdue
Sam Dekker - Wisconsin
Denzel Valentine - Michigan State
The second team is loaded with solid players all on teams that earned double byes in the Big Ten Tournament with a top four league finish. Trimble and Wells received 33 and 30 points, respectively. Hammons was mostly a second team selection across the board and had 28 points. Dekker had 29, while Valentine rounded out this group of five with 21 points. Last season Dekker was a second Team selection.
Third Team all-Big Ten:
Travis Trice - Michigan State
Branden Dawson - Michigan State
Nigel Hayes - Wisconsin
Terran Petteway - Nebraska
James Blackmon Jr. - Indiana
Michigan State and Wisconsin each put three players on the top 15 spots with Trice getting 19 points and Dawson getting 18. Hayes is the third Badger with 16 points. Petteway is Nebraska's only selection and was a First Team Selection here a year ago.
Honorable Mention:
The following players each received at least a Third Team vote on at least one ballot:
Andre Hollins - Minnesota
Malcolm Hill - Illinois
Rapheal Davis - Purdue
Jarrod Uthoff - Iowa
Troy Williams - Indiana
Rayvonte Rice - Illinois
Jon Octeus - Purdue
Jake Layman - Maryland
Shavon Shields - Nebraska
Alex Olah - Northwestern
Kadeem Jack - Rutgers
Zak Irvin - Michigan
Isaac Haas - Purdue
Maurice Walker - Minnesota
Myles Mack - Rutgers
Once again, thank you to everyone for taking part in this. This is one of my favorite columns to write each year. It is fun to see what the great blogs we have within the SB Nation think about the all-Big Ten teams and tabulate our own awards.