It appears that late this afternoon Marquette’s Jae Crowder is going to be named Big East Player of the Year. It also appears Twitter is much more fun with Bob Huggins around.

Hey, I think Crowder is a really nice player and is certainly worthy of the award … but I think Kevin Jones is a really nice player who is more worthy of the award.

I’m not going to put on a sandwich board and stand outside MSG today and reel off statistics and credentials, and I can’t prove a conspiracy, but I do think it goes without saying that — and this is no offense to Jones’ teammates — Crowder had a better supporting cast which made it easier for him to come by his numbers and for his team to come by its success.

He had a first-team all-conference shooting guard who was second in the conference in scoring. Jones had a third-team all-conference shooting guard who had some really rough games at the end of the season.

Marquette had a very good point guard who averaged 5.5 assists per game. Jones had two point guards total 197 assists … or 32 more than Marquette’s Junior Cadougan.

Our guy, overtheSEC, figured this out last night — and it’s pretty telling:

– Eighty percent of of Crowder’s baskets came on assists. Two-thirds of KJ’s baskets came on assists. 

– Crowder had 38 unassisted baskets all season. Jones had 84.

– Crowder had only four games where he had more than two unassisted baskets in one game. KJ had 12 such games.

– Crowder had 11 games where all of his baskets came on assists. KJ had one.

I think there are, and always were, three things working against KJ. First is what we just discussed. Crowder has better paint for his big picture and that’s often overlooked.

Second is the debate about whether this award is for the most valuable player or the most outstanding player. Surely the angriest Jones fan today could consider the argument that Crowder is more outstanding, but the Crowder fan must also listen to the case for Jones as most valuable.

Crowder, who finished second on his team in scoring, was the team’s top scorer in 14 of 31 games and only 12 times by himself. KJ, who led the league in scoring, led his team in 22 of 31 games and 21 times by himself.

Forget scoring, or rebounding, totals. This may very well have been about a 14-4 record being better than a 9-9 record and not about how the player got his team there.

The last thing is that coaches could start sending ballots the first day of the final week of the regular season. Well, WVU had just lost seven of nine and KJ wasn’t scoring and rebounding at the same rate and an early ballot probably reflected that and neglected his final two games — 22 and 16, 18 and 11.