FanPost

The case for Rakeem Christmas as ACC POY

In one of the other threads, I posted a comment regarding Rak's chances at earning ACC Player of the Year. The gist of my reasoning was that Christmas is to this Syracuse squad what TJ Warren was to last year's NC State team; a do everything guy who carried a not-so-great team farther than most thought they would go. Warren winning that award leads me to believe that the voters consider the ACC Player of the Year award to be an MVP, not an MOP, meaning that the winner should be the player most important to his team, not necessarily the best overall player. In my comment, I conceded that TJ Warren might have been both but, after looking at the numbers, there's a case Rak migth be both too.

I took a gander at the league leaders for this season and last season over at the ACC's official site. Warren had a truly impressive year, leading the conference in scoring by a wide margin (over 5 PPG) while also leading in field goal percentage. Jahlil Okarfor is doing the same, but his lead in scoring over Rakeem is less than 1 PPG. Also, post players typically shoot a high percentage. For Warren to lead the conference as a guard is maybe more impressive than his scoring average. And to cap it off, Warren got it done on defense as well, finishing fourth in the league in steals at 1.8 SPG. It was truly a great season for Warren and, now that I look at it closely, I'm not so mad that he won it over CJ Fair.

Now, let's take a look at Rak's numbers. He second in scoring (18.18 PPG), just behind Okafor. He's third in field goal percentage (.59). He's fourth in rebounding average (8.94 RPG) and second in blocks at 2.35 (crazy side note. With Chris McCollough sidelined for the year, he's likely locked down third on this list a just over 2 BPG).

So, that's a spot in the top five in four statistical categories for Rak. True, he's not at the top of any of those the way Warren was but, just like TJ, Rak's numbers prove he's one of the top players in the league on both ends of the floor. It also must be pointed out that, in the three categories in which Jahlil Okafor is listed, he's above Rak.

Which brings me back to the point about MVP vs. MOP. Okafor might be the best player in the ACC. But he plays for Duke and, despite a two game losing streak, Duke is still having a Dookie year. Syracuse is not having a banner year. True, 13-4 now looks better than 6-4 did a month ago. But there's not denying that Rakeem Christmas is the reason this team still has a season to play for. When this team was looking NIT bad in the early going, Rak was the anchor, they guy they leaned on to bail them out when it looked like the S.S. Boeheim was going down. The Orange could easily have seven or eight losses right now, which would effectively be the end of their NCAA Tournament hopes as an at-large team.

That, to me, makes Rak an MVP. He's accepted the challenge of carrying this team as far as he can take it, and has excelled in doing so. Though he apparently isn't worthy to sniff the Wooden Award, I'd say that not only is he a contender for ACC PoY, he's the front runner through a third of the season.