PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Bannon: Ohio State center Terence Dials turned it on as a senior and was the league’s most effective difference-maker. Dominant big men are rare in college basketball, but the Buckeyes have one.
Hanley: Dials. He’s the key to the Buckeyes’ three-point offense with his inside presence. Cover him and there is a sharpshooter open on the three-point arc. Don’t cover him and he’ll dunk all night.
Milbert: Dee Brown of Illinois. That’s what Tom Izzo thinks. Who am I to argue with an expert witness who in his 10 years as Michigan State coach has won a national championship and been to the Final Four three other times?
Myslenski: Dials. The Buckeyes’ three-point shooters often were more dazzling, but he was their anchor. He did the dirty work down low, collected important rebounds and delivered down the stretch, helping the Buckeyes claim the title by winning eight of their last nine games. In those nine, Dials reached double figures eight times and averaged 17.8 points.
COACH OF THE YEAR
Bannon: In only his second season in Columbus, Ohio State’s Thad Matta took the Buckeyes to the regular-season title.
Hanley: Matta. The Buckeyes were overlooked, but Ohio State won the games it needed to win in a balanced Big Ten.
Milbert: Matta. In the summer of 2004 he became the coach of a team reeling from NCAA violations that had cost Jim O’Brien his job and led to a school-imposed one-year ban on NCAA tournament play. Today that team stands atop the Big Ten.
Myslenski: Matta. In just two years, he rehabilitated a program that was in disarray following the scandals that prompted the departure of O’Brien. He also did what the best coaches do. He recognized what he had–one big man and a bunch of shooters–and fashioned a style that utilized his players’ strengths.
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Bannon: Penn State’s Jamelle Cornley led the league’s freshmen in scoring (11.5) and rebounding (5.4).
Hanley: Cornley. The son of former Illinois State standout Hank Cornley (1980-84, then drafted by the Nets) is one of the reasons the Nittany Lions were competitive.
Milbert: Cornley. The 6-foot-6-inch forward’s .513 shooting percentage puts him in the league’s top 10.
Myslenski: Cornley. This was another year of the upperclassmen. Among the top 30 scorers were 26 seniors and juniors and a freshman. Among its top 20 rebounders were 15 seniors and juniors and a freshman. In both cases the freshman was Cornley, who prepped in Columbus, Ohio.
COMEBACK OF THE YEAR
Bannon: In the middle of February, Indiana lost five straight and appeared headed to the NIT. But when coach Mike Davis announced his resignation, effective after the season, it took the pressure off. The Hoosiers take a four-game winning streak into the conference tournament and have a shot at an NCAA bid.
Hanley: Jeff Horner had been a key to Iowa’s success his first three seasons. When the senior guard went down with a torn ligament in his left knee against Northern Iowa in December, it looked like the Hawkeyes’ season was in jeopardy.
Horner missed four games and struggled in several more with a cumbersome knee brace before returning to form. He helped Iowa tie for second in the league while leading the Big Ten in assists (5.88). He also averaged 12.7 points.
Milbert: Michigan’s Daniel Horton. After being a poster boy for off-court problems and playing in only five conference games last season, the senior point guard is averaging 17.7 points, 5.25 assists and 1.85 steals. His 39-point game against Illinois was the best scoring performance in the Big Ten this season.
Myslenski: Wisconsin. In mid-January, the Badgers lost a pair of important role players and dropped five of their next six games, including a non-conference stunner at home to North Dakota State.
They recovered to win four of their next five and finished fourth in the conference race, likely guaranteeing themselves a spot in the NCAA tournament.
GAME OF THE YEAR
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Bannon: On Jan. 15, Michigan State handed Ohio State its only home loss of the season, a 62-59 double-overtime grinder. Old-fashioned Big Ten defense won it for the Spartans.
Hanley: Maybe not from a beauty standpoint, but Ohio State’s victory at Northwestern. If Ron Lewis had missed his runner in the last seconds of a 56-53 Buckeyes victory, the standings would be logjammed at the top. If the Wildcats had made a shot on their last two possessions, things would have been different for runners-up Illinois and Iowa.
Milbert: Iowa’s 76-72 triple-overtime victory over Minnesota was the highlight of its 17-0 record at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. No other Big Ten team had a perfect record on its home court.
Myslenski: Ohio State at North-western. With the Buckeyes a win away from clinching a share of the regular-season title, this looked like a classic mismatch. But the Wildcats stymied Ohio State’s shooters with an extended zone, dropped some huge shots of their own and carried a surprising one-point lead into the last minute. The Buckeyes, with the ball late, nearly turned it over twice before steadying themselves. They got a huge bucket from Lewis and escaped Evanston with a three-point victory.
UPSET OF THE YEAR
Bannon: Penn State went to Champaign on Feb. 4 and stunned the sixth-ranked Illini 66-65, marking the Lions as a team to watch next season.
Hanley: Penn State can’t win at Illinois. It just can’t. It won’t happen. Cows on the South Farms will fly before that happens. Penn State’s victory proved almost anything is possible in sports.
Milbert: Penn State’s victory at Illinois. The Nittany Lions rallied from a 16-point second-half deficit to end the Illini’s school-record home winning streak at 33. Travis Parker’s game-winning basket with 8.5 seconds remaining gave Penn State its first lead. Rich McBride’s three-point shot for Illinois that found the net at the buzzer was launched a split-second too late.
Myslenski: Penn State at Illinois. There has been no place like home for the Illini, who have dropped just one game at Assembly Hall the last two seasons. This loss was a stunner, an affair Illinois controlled before letting it slip away. The upset ultimately cost the Illini their third straight regular-season title.
DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE YEAR
Bannon: Michigan State played the toughest conference schedule, meeting the bottom four teams only once. The Spartans were 5-7 against the other six teams on the way to their 8-8 finish. Will things change in March?
Hanley: Michigan State was the preseason choice to win the Big Ten. It finished .500 in the league despite three players who would start for any team in the country.
Milbert: Mike Davis’ resignation as Indiana coach. The coach who took Indiana to the 2002 national championship game the season after he succeeded the fired Bob Knight never succeeded in winning the hearts of Indiana fans.
Myslenski: Michigan State guard Maurice Ager. On the surface, this might be an unusual pick. He led the Spartans in scoring and was the second-leading scorer in the Big Ten at 19.1 ppg. But below the surface, you discover he was just brutal in most of the Spartans’ six conference road losses. He had nine points at Illinois on 3-for-8 shooting, nine at Iowa on 3-for-11 shooting and six at Minnesota on 2-for-9 shooting. Much more is expected of a senior leader.
SURPRISE OF THE YEAR
Bannon: Ohio State, widely projected as a middle-of-the-pack finisher, won the regular-season title outright.
Hanley: Poor Ed DeChellis. Who would want that Penn State job? Overshadowed by Nittany Lions football and out in the middle of nowhere. Under DeChellis, Penn State doubled its victory total over last season, finished the regular season 14-13 and was 6-10 in the Big Ten.
Milbert: Michigan State finishing sixth. With four starters back from a Final Four team–including the nation’s highest-scoring threesome of Ager, Shannon Brown and Paul Davis–the Spartans were the consensus preseason choice to win the conference championship.
Myslenski: Ohio State. It was billed as a transition season for the Buckeyes, who are set to welcome a heralded recruiting class next season, headed by 7-foot high school All-American Greg Oden of Indianapolis. But the team’s four seniors showed the value of maturity, winning a league-best five conference road games (no other team won more than three) en route to the title almost no one gave them a chance to win.