Print |
E-mail to a friend
SPORTS
Landon: MU players vote C-USA better than media does
TULSA, Okla. -- Conference USA can keep its all-league team.
Give me Marshall's All-Opponent team.
C-USA coaches and select media voted on the league's all-conference team, which was released Monday.
Meanwhile, balloting for Marshall's All-Opponent squad was being conducted Sunday after the Herd's 73-57 win over SMU in the regular-season finale.
No offense to C-USA coaches and those selective media members, but Marshall's players did a better job with their voting.
Members of Marshall's All-Opponent first team include Memphis point guard Elliot Williams, UTEP shooting guard Randy Culpepper, Houston's small forward Aubrey Coleman, UTEP power forward Derrick Caracter and Tulsa center Jerome Jordan.
Pretty impressive starting five, huh?
Now, compare that to the Conference USA all-league first team.
It included Tulsa guard Ben Uzoh and UAB guard Elijah Millsap along with the aforementioned Coleman, Culpepper and Williams.
What sticks out like a dislocated thumb on the All-Conference USA team?
They're all guards.
The 6-foot-6 Millsap would have to play center and Coleman at barely 6-4 (allegedly) and 200 pounds would be at power forward in the All-Conference USA starting five.
Good luck with that.
The Marshall All-Opponent first team, on the other hand, would be a dynamic lineup. The difference, obviously, would be the 7-foot, 245-pound Jordan at center and the 6-9, 275-pound Caracter, aka, "The Incredible Bulk," at power forward.
The All-Conference USA first team would win a scoring battle by a scant 94 points to 92, but Jordan and Caracter would give the Marshall All-Opponent first team an edge in rebounding, field goal percentage and blocked shots.
The MU All-Opponent squad would out-rebound the All-Conference USA first team, 31.6 to 28.6; out-shoot them, .481 to .450; and out-swat them, 115 blocked shots to 50.
As for the Marshall All-Opponent second team, it included East Carolina's Brock Young, Memphis' Wesley Witherspoon, Southern Miss' Gary Flowers and the previously mentioned Uzoh and Millsap.
But the issue is the pair of first teams.
So, who would win if those two mythical teams actually squared off?
No contest.
The Marshall All-Opponent first team would beat the All-Conference USA first five every time.
Yes, every time.
If they played 10 times, the All-Opponent team would win 10 times.
And that's cause for concern.
It points out a problem in the All-Conference USA format. By utilizing a "pick the best player regardless of position" philosophy, it often leads to a first team composed of the league's leading scorers.
That's precisely what happened in the 2010 C-USA selections. The first team included five of the league's top six scorers.
But should points out-weigh rebounds, field goal percentage, blocked shots and so many other aspects of the game?
Of course not.
That's why I prefer all-league teams that are chosen by position. If that had been the case in the Conference USA selections, Caracter and either Jordan or Marshall's Hassan Whiteside would have been first-teamers.
My choice would be Whiteside.
That would be a much better All-Conference USA first team than the one that was selected.
In other words ...
The Marshall All-Opponent team got it right.
Chuck Landon is a sports columnist for The Herald-Dispatch. Call him at 304-526-2827. E-mail him at clandon@herald-dispatch.com.
