Quinn Cook NOT on Cousy Finalist List

The 12 finalists for the Bob Cousy award were announced and somehow Quinn Cook is NOT on the list.

How does this happen? I honestly don’t know. I know Quinn has not gotten the respect he deserves going all the way back to the beginning of the season when CBS claimed he was not one of the top 50 point guards in America.

Let’s take a quick look at who did make the list and their averages for this year:

• Keith Appling – Michigan State – 14 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 4.2 APG
  Appling has been more of scoring guard this year (12 games of 15 or more points) with his season high in assists being 9 against Nebraska with 15 games of 4 assists or less including a goose egg versus Indiana.
• Lorenzo Brown – NC State – 12.7 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 6.9 APGI
  have no qualms with Brown being on this list. Being in the ACC we see on a weekly basis that he is one of the top point guards in the country.
• Trey Burke – Michigan – 18.1 PPG, 3.1 RPG, 7.2 APG
  As with Brown, I have no issue with Burke being on the list. I believe he’s one of the top 3 point guards in the country and he’s in the running for National Player of the Year.
• Michael Carter Williams – Syracuse – 12.2 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 8.5 APG
  With his high assist totals, it would be very hard to keep him off the list. Syracuse I believe would not be as good as they are without him.
• Aaron Craft – Ohio State – 9.3 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 4.5 APG
  I’ll catch hell for this but I don’t think Craft is one of the top point guards in the country. Defensively yes, but offensively he seems to disappear at times. He has no double digit assist games with his season high being 8 against UNC Asheville and Nebraska (hmmm someone else on this list had their season high against them).
• Matthew Dellavedova – Saint Mary’s – 16.3 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 6.5 APG
  His numbers suggest that while he is a scoring guard, he also gets his teammates involved in the game as he has 3 double digit assist games and only 5 games with under 5 assists on the season.
• Pierre Jackson – Baylor – 19.3 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 6.0 APG
  Jackson appears to be more of a scoring guard in a point guards body. He did have one double digit assist game, but it was the first one of the season against Lehigh (no comments!). He has no scored less than 10 points in a game all season with 10 games of 20 or more.
• Shane Larkin – Miami – 12.8 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 4.1 APG
  Again I’ll get heat for this but I believe the only reason he’s on the list is because of how well Miami is playing. Is he the reason behind that? He’s certainly part of it but he has high for assists on the season is 6 and he’s another one that seems to be more of a scoring guard with only 5 games under double digits.
• Phil Pressey – Missouri – 12.1 PPG, 3.1 RPG, 7.2 APG
  Again with a few others, it’s hard to argue against having Pressey on this list especially when he goes off for 19 pts and 19 assists in a single game.
• Peyton Siva – Louisville – 10.6 PPG, 2.2 RPG, 6.1 APG
  If Siva is on this list then Cook needs to be on this list. Not only did Cook beat Siva, but Siva’s play has been too inconsistent and he’s cost the Cardinals games they could’ve easily and should’ve won (take a bow Syracuse).
• Marcus Smart – Oklahoma St. – 14.2 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 4.7 APG
  I like Marcus Smart and he’s having a great freshmen year, but this is another case of a scoring guard playing point guard. He has no double digit assist games and nine games of 3 assists or less. He has less games of only scoring in single digits, four.
• Nate Wolters – South Dakota State – 20.8 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 5.6 APG
  Yet another scoring guard playing point guard. Only one double digit assist game and no games under double digits in scoring. In fact he only has four games scoring less than 15 points.

Now let’s take a look at Cook’s numbers on the season – 11.5 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 6.2 APG. He only has 6 games under 5 assists (2 of which where his first two games when he didn’t start). You can also look beyond his numbers and see why this Duke team is having a much better year than they did last year because of his play at point guard (which they lacked last year). You can also see how his play makes Mason Plumlee better and a contender for National Player of the Year. Take a look at Duke Hoop Blog’s piece on Cook from earlier today.

I believe he should be on the list. His numbers and play have proven that. What do you think?

Image courtesy of SportsAngle.com