2014-15 SB Nation All-Big Ten Basketball Awards

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 5^th 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.