I'll be honest, I don't love the picks here. Kane and Ejim are locks for the first team. And Staten deserves a spot too. The prevailing opinion is that Wiggins and Embiid are both on the first team as well. I'd concede Wiggins, as he's been solid, contributing in every statistical category except assists. I don't fully understand the love for Embiid. Statistically, his season is pretty similar to Isaiah Austin's last year, which landed Austin on the second team.
Of Brown, Hield and Anderson I think one makes the first team instead of Embiid and I'd guess it's Hield, rewarding OU for their good season.
I still like Smart on the second team. He'd be a no-brainer for first team if he'd played all season, but the suspension has to count for something.
All five Cyclone starters are on this list, and I don't think that's unreasonable. I like Monte on the third team and with two on the first, Niang on the third balances that out a bit. Houge has been incredibly consistent down the stretch but pretty quiet too. There are only seven or eight guys who should be in the running for honorable mention tomorrow.
If an Iowa State player is going to be picked Big 12 POY, my vote is still for Kane. He's produced at the same level as Smart did last year, if not a little higher. Ejim is a great story, and it'd still be great for ISU but Kane was far and away the best player this year.
Like I said above, I like the people I've got on this list, and in general where they are placed but it looks like I'll need to do some tweaking to my formulas. I think this year is going to turn out to be a little bit of an anomaly in that there are a bunch of guards producing highly in multiple categories and unfortunately a few of them that aren't playing for great teams. Depending how it shakes out, I could make the team ranking more important, give Wiggins and Embiid a bump for being lottery picks next year, or maybe try to adjust based on team tempo vs. average tempo of the conference.
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