There's been a discussion on BA about the MAC frosh of the year. But who do you have for player and coach of the year?

Going into the season's final week, my pick for POY is UT PG Ray J Dennis. The Rockets lost 2021 MAC POY Marreon Jackson to Arizona St. but improved the PG position with Dennis coming in from Boise St. A year later the Rockets lose the MAC's best offensive player a year early to the NBA, Ryan Rollins, yet are a deeper and more explosive offensive team this year. Dennis, who's averaging 19 ppg, 4.4 rpg and 5.7 apg., was 2 rebounds short of a triple double today v. UB. UA's Castenada will be runner up.

Coach of the year should be Ball State first-year coach Michael Lewis. He began the Cardinal turnaround immediately by getting frosh of the year Peyton Sparks, along with classmates Jihad and Sellers, to return to Muncie after entering the transfer portal. He then got Jarron Coleman to return to BSU after transferring from Ball St. to Missouri for one year as a starter in the SEC. The Cardinals will probably end up a 3rd or 4th seed after back-to-back losing seasons. He also has the student body and local community excited with bigger crowds this winter at Worthen (UT visits Muncie this Friday. . . unfortunately the students will be on spring break). I can see Dennis' coach at UT, Coach K, winning this award.

BTW, if Bass wasn't the frontrunner for Frosh of the year before today, he surely is now after a 40-point game v. NIU, including 21 of 24 from the line.

POY: Xavier Castaneda - Akron

1st in MAC in Win Shares
1st in MAC in Box Plus Minus
2nd in MAC in Win Shares Per 40
3rd in MAC in Offensive Rating
10th in MAC in Defensive Rating (one of only 2 MAC players in Top 10 for both Offensive and Defensive Rating)

Runner-Up: Enrique Freeman - Akron

Rest of 1st Team All-MAC:
JT Shumate - Toledo
Dwight Wilson III - Ohio
RayJ Dennis - Toledo

2nd Team All-MAC:
Damarius Jacobs - Ball St
Miryne Thomas - Kent St
Sincere Carry - Kent St
Malique Jacobs - Kent St
Curtis Jones - Buffalo

Honorable Mention All-MAC:
Jaylin Hunter - Ohio
Payton Sparks - Ball St
Jaylin Sellers - Ball St
Mekhi Lairy - Miami
Emoni Bates - EMU

Coach of the Year - Probably go with Todd K at Toledo with Senderoff at Kent a close 2nd.

I just hope Dwight can get on First Team. It will be tough:
Dwight
Carry
Castenada
Freeman
Bates
Shumate
Dennis

You only get five right? My hope is:
Wilson, castenada, carry, dennis, freeman

Who is obvious? Each dominated the other in wins.

If I had to guess...

RayJ; 18.9 points, 5.9 assists, 4.5 rebounds.

Best player on the best team.

Wouldn't surprise me to see Bates or Castenada.

Bates would be an f'n joke/travesty.

EMU might finish dead last - or at minimum likely not to qualify for Cleveland.

Bates is a first year player.

And his efficiency and defense stats are TERRIBLE. Go check his shooting percentages, turnovers etc.

He's a fringe honorable mention guy, just because of his name recognition and scoring ability (albeit from a volume shooting perspective).

Also - if the criteria is we're giving it to the "best player on the best team" (which isn't how I would award it), then my vote would go to Malique Jacobs at Kent.

Of all the categories I could find, DW3 leads Freeman in three categories--only one significantly--free throw percentage. DW3 leads in ppg and field goal percentage but these two are a virtual tie 16 to 15.9 and 62.1% to 60.7%.

But that is where the DW3 high marks end and Freeman takes over. 30.6 minutes a game vs 25.3. Rebounds, 11.1 to 9.3. Assists and steals higher for Freeman. But the huge difference is blocks where Freeman leads the MAC and DW3 doesn't lead Wiznitzer! Freeman has also gone to the line 161 times vs 112 for Wilson; why is that important? You may cause guys to foul out like Wilson did against Akron in game one (Wiz) also. Your teammates get to the bonus sooner when they get hacked.

And if you think Wilson dominated Freeman in one of the OHIO vs Akron games, look again. Freeman scores 32 in game one vs Wilson 14. In game two Freeman scored 21 vs Wilson's 16.

DW3 will be the top dog of the MAC second team but JT Shumate will make it on 1st team before Dwight. Better team record, higher pts per game and outstanding free throw shooter and shot blocker.

Dennis wrapped up POY in finale with 32 and 7 for #1 team.

Edit: Then again, Carry's tops that with 35 points while holding Castenada to 13.