Westbrook's Season Deserving of MVP Honor

Westbrook has led OKC in Durant's absence

The argument at the beginning of the season consisted of LeBron James' quest for a fifth MVP while the talented Stephen Curry exploded into the race right off the bat. Rising star Anthony Davis entered the conversation for much of the first half of the season before injuries sidelined him for a handful of games. Now here we are at the end of the season, and the top three candidates for the league's most prestigious individual award are Curry, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook. The majority of people, both analysts and fans, believe that Curry and Harden are the only true contenders, which shows that Westbrook's phenomenal season has been severely under-appreciated.

Let's get something straight before people get all bent out of shape: Stephen Curry and James Harden have put together astounding seasons. Curry has broken records and has lit up the highlight reels with his improved ball handling while Harden has put up insane numbers in his own right. Both of these players are in the race for a reason, and they deserve every bit of consideration. Yet if you look at Russell Westbrook's season and the team he has had to work with for the majority of this year, it's hard to say that he is not the most deserving for the MVP award.

Curry has led the Warriors to the one seed

Last night I was in Bankers Life Fieldhouse and witnessed Westbrook's 54 points (which was a career high might I add), 9 rebounds, and 8 assists against the Pacers. Yes, he took 43 shots, that's the common argument against Westbrook. "He shoots too much". "He doesn't shoot a high percentage". "He's selfish". Had those arguments been posed in previous years, I would have wholeheartedly agreed because he would have been hoisting ill-advised shots when Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka were on the floor. However, neither Durant or Ibaka are going to be any help for this season and have both missed countless games. This team has become Westbrook's to lead even after Durant and Ibaka return and he is dragging Oklahoma City to the playoffs. He no longer has an MVP to pass to. He no longer has Ibaka's 14 points per game to feed. It's Westbrook's show to run and if he's not leading the league in scoring and posting triple doubles on almost a nightly basis then OKC is not even sniffing the playoff race they are currently in.

Harden is currently second in the NBA in scoring

Does Westbrook shoot a lot? Yes. There's no way around it, he averages 22 field goal attempts a game. While Harden averages 18 shots per game and Curry averages 16, it's out of line to call Westbrook selfish when he's averaging 8.6 assists as opposed to Hardens 6.9 and Curry's 7.7. Throw that in with the fact that Rockets and Warriors both have exceptionally better supporting casts than the Thunder currently does and it's easy to see that Westbrook is doing more with less.

While the offensive numbers are gaudy and always get the most attention, Westbrook's influence on the defensive side of the ball contributes just as much as his influence on offense. He forces more turnovers (he averages over two steals a game) and grabs more defensive rebounds (5.3 per game compared to Hardens 4.7 and Curry's 3.6) than the other two candidates. For Curry, he has improved his on-ball defense greatly this season, but he's not the defensive force that Westbrook is. Harden, on the other hand, struggles to understand what playing defense means (See "James Harden defensive juggernaut" on YouTube).

The bottom line is that you can take Harden away from the Rockets and still watch Houston in the playoffs. You can take Curry away from the Warriors and still see a top four team in the West. But if you take Westbrook away from the Thunder with the shape they are currently in then they are dwelling near the bottom of the conference. Not only has Westbrook been impressive, he's been historic this year. He has posted numbers that only Michael Jordan and Oscar Robertson have put up. Sure, Curry has broken a couple records of his own, but in terms of total domination of a game, Westbrook reigns supreme. Again, Harden and Curry have been fun to watch and they have played great basketball all year, but if you look at the value of each individual player in terms of where their team would be without them, Westbrook affects the Thunder's success more than Curry affects the Warriors or Harden affects the Rockets.

Lauren Hill Passes Away After Battle With Cancer

Many of us didn't know her. Quite frankly, we didn't have to. Her name was Lauren Hill and she became a hero to many after her story was told in 2014. She was a girl who had a dream of playing college basketball and planned to do so at the College of Mount Saint Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio. She had the skill, she had the potential, but inoperable brain cancer kept her from full participation in the sport she loved. Originally, her doctors didn't believe she would make it to the day of her first college basketball game. In a heartwarming effort to make sure she had the experience of playing in her team's first game of the year, the NCAA allowed a rescheduling of MSJ's first game which was played in early November. It was expected to be her only game and it was expected that she would pass before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving came and went and Lauren was still healthy enough to suit up with her teammates. Christmas also came to pass and Lauren was still with us. She was refusing to give in to her illness while managing to inspire a country through her resilience and strength.

Here at Anderson University in Indiana, I have the great privilege of doing the public address announcing for a handful of our athletic teams, one of which is women's basketball. On January 21st of this year, Mount Saint Joe came to AU for a conference match-up. At this point, Lauren Hill's "Layups for Lauren" foundation was well-known and thriving, helping raise over 1.5 million dollars for cancer research. The campus of AU did a phenomenal job of advertising this particular game and numerous students came to support Lauren's cause.

Sadly, Lauren was not with her teammates when they made the two and a half hour trip here to Anderson, Indiana. Yet there was a buzz in the gym unlike any I've experienced. I've played in sold out gyms against crosstown rivals in high school. I've been to the NCAA Final Four twice, including this year's which featured the undefeated Kentucky Wildcats. None of those experiences, not one of those games felt like that January night in O.C. Lewis Gymnasium. The aforementioned games had plenty of emotion, plenty of excitement, but this game between Anderson and Mount Saint Joe just felt different. This was something bigger than sports and everybody knew it. It was about basketball, but it wasn't at the same time.

Hill was a freshman at MSJ

Basketball is what brought Lauren Hill's story into the public eye, but it was her fight and her determination to get the most out of each day that made the biggest impact. And on that night, it wasn't necessarily about winning and losing. On that night it was about recognizing Lauren's determination and realizing how much of an impact she had. She was 19 years old, a girl who had plenty ahead of her. She was not even in the gym the night of that game, but people knew her struggle. They knew her influence. They knew her dreams. Not many college students can affect a crowd of 2,000 people like that without being in the room.

So today we mourn the loss of a girl who is gone much too soon. But in the sadness, it's important to realize that Lauren Hill accomplished a lifetime's worth of feats. Because of Lauren we have seen a girl fight for each day with a smile on her face. There was never any evidence of a "why me?" attitude, rather an attitude of wanting to inspire people to treasure what and who they have. Lauren has taught us to never allow anything to hold us back and to chase after whatever it is we want out of life. She lived with a purpose and that purpose will live on for years to come.

I would never say that Lauren "lost her battle with cancer". How could she lose? She raised more money than we could have imagined and outlasted the disease by six months. Cancer didn't get the best of her because, even though she may be gone physically, the lessons we learned and courage she displayed are still with us. Cancer will never, could never touch that. So now it's on us. We need to continue to aid the research, we need to continue to do what's necessary to beat this disease. It has taken numerous people from this earth, famous or not, but with each person that passes we become more inspired. So here's to you Lauren, thank you for your fight, thank you for your courage, and thank you for your enthusiasm. You will be missed dearly, but know that your influence will never pass. Rest in peace and God bless your family and friends as they cope with this tragedy.

Wisconsin's Loss is a Loss for College Basketball

This wasn't how the season was supposed to end. Not in the mind of Wisconsin's fans and players. The confetti being shot out of the scoreboard in Lucas Oil Stadium on April 6th was supposed to be red and white and nothing else. Bo Ryan was supposed to be the coach standing on the platform with Jim Nantz and one of Wisconsin's veteran leaders was supposed to be named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

But you know the saying: All good things must come to an end.

The only problem was that this wasn't just a good thing. It was a great thing. It was great for the University of Wisconsin and it was great for the game of college basketball. This team was the perfect example of what college basketball should be, yet no longer is. They were human and they were real. They were here to play for each other and play for their school. It was never about paying their dues and bolting for the NBA Draft because this team took pride in their potential and knew they could have been something special. They SHOULD have been something special.

To anyone that pays attention to basketball, collegiate or professional, it is understood that the "one and done" mindset dominates the young talent around the nation and, in some cases, forms certain programs to be nothing but a minor league system for the NBA rather than a place to raise student-athletes. You've seen Kentucky turn out lottery draft pick after lottery draft pick and any highly-touted recruit with even a glimmer of hope of being drafted falls into the trap of leaving school early. That's why this Wisconsin team was special. They had players that were going to be drafted last year that came back because winning a National Championship in college was more important to them than chasing a seven-digit paycheck.

Kaminsky and Dekker led the Badgers to back-to-back Final Fours

Those specific players are Sam Dekker and Frank Kaminsky. Two players who went from good to great in this season and led the Badgers the entire way. They showed us that there are still players and teams that take college basketball to heart and are proud of who they play for. This is not to say that the Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parkers of the world didn't appreciate the schools they played for. But it's no secret that, before those two highly-touted recruits even stepped on campus, that they were one-and-dones. So why get attached? Why begin cheering for kids that aren't going to leave a college legacy? Why even trick yourself into thinking that the great recruits will hang around for even a second year of school?

That's why this Wisconsin team was impossible to root against. They showed us the human side of college basketball and proved that, despite the fact that college basketball is becoming more of a business, that they're still kids who are playing the game they love. They joked in interviews, they goofed around in the public eye, all while managing to put together one of the best seasons in their school's history. They epitomized what college basketball should be about: a team that was one of the best in the nation last year and wanted more. They didn't settle for a Final Four finish. They weren't okay with leaving Dallas with a loss. Kaminsky and Dekker could have left for the Draft and didn't. They came back with the goal of hoisting that trophy in mind and nothing less than that would suffice.

We need more teams and players like Wisconsin's. We need more Frank Kaminskys and Sam Dekkers because they give us hope that not all college basketball players only use college basketball as a stepping stone to the NBA. Sure, we've enjoyed watching teams like Arizona and even Kentucky, who shockingly brought back the core of their 2014 Final Four team. Those teams had veterans and they had experience. Kentucky even made a second consecutive Final Four run of their own. But the dynamic of those teams was not like Wisconsin's. Wisconsin didn't play any freshmen. Wisconsin was led by players that were there for Wisconsin, not their own draft stock. That's why last night's championship loss hurts a little more than normal.

Okafor and Jones have most likely played their final game for Duke

And while Wisconsin's freshmen were on the sidelines, Duke's freshmen were rising above the rest. Tyus Jones, Justise Winslow, Grayson Allen, and Jahlil Okafor scored 60 of their 68 points and showed just how talented and capable they are. It was fun to watch, right? I witnessed that game, and as I sat there in Lucas Oil Stadium and thought about how great Duke could be next year it occurred to me that the Blue Devils championship team is gone. Long gone. Jones, Winslow, and Okafor are likely to leave for the Draft while another wave of freshman talent comes in. Just like that, a championship team is torn apart as quickly as it came together. That's what's so frustrating.

I'm not a fan of Duke, never have been. But think of how much fun college basketball would be if those freshman stayed and tried to repeat? Look how anxious college basketball fans got whenever Kentucky took the floor. The Wildcats were already the villains of the college basketball world but what they did this year gave the game excitement and an edge that had been absent as of late. I dislike Kentucky as well, but watching those kids who came back evolve and lead was, and I'm ashamed to admit this, fun to experience. It goes to show how competitive the game COULD be if players would stay.

That's why Wisconsin was more than just a team trying to repeat. In a way that they may not have intended, they were a team that was trying to revive a lost concept in the world of college basketball. Had they won, they would have left a legacy that had not been achieved since the '06 and '07 Florida teams. The results are different, but the concept remains the same: both programs brought back players who wanted to get back to where they ended the previous season and, in Wisconsin's case, achieve more.

So while I watched Frank Kaminsky crouch on the sideline as the Duke players wrestled each other to the ground, I realized that Wisconsin's loss was a loss for college basketball fans. The story-book ending was there. They channeled their inner Benny Rodriguez and pickled the Beast in the semi-finals only to fall short to a team that will have an entirely new look next season. They came back to get to that moment, to seize that opportunity, and yet it wasn't meant to be. But even in the loss, Wisconsin should still be appreciated. Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker should be thanked for restoring a little faith and humanity to the college game. They gave us a glimpse of college basketball being treated the right way. Wisconsin won't be anywhere in the history books and soon they will be overlooked. But for now we need to recognize just how special this team was to a game we so deeply love.