| Subject: Bez Mbeng Wins POY and DPOY; Did Harmoni Turner Deserve Both As Well? |
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An Observer
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Date Posted: 15:10:50 03/12/25 Wed
I'm doing everything I can to stimulate this board. It's been here for us for a long time; it deserves our best.
The Ivy League men's head coaches did one of the rarest things in post-season awards: They passed on the opportunity to give POY and DPOY to two different players because one outstanding player was marginally most qualified for the second award.
Bez Mbeng is clearly the best defender in our league. No argument there. He is also one of a small number of guys who are a reasonable POY. In this circumstance, which happens a lot in post-season awards, coaches usually opt to name another player for the second award.
The rationale is simple: Why not spread the wealth? Make more human beings happy.
But the Ivy head coaches, including the one guy who could have pushed this in a different direction -- Yale head coach James Jones -- decided that, nope, we're running a meritocracy here. If one player is even marginally the best candidate for POY and DPOY, that's how we're going to call the balls and strikes.
Interestingly, we had exactly the same set-up on the women's side, but the coaches in dresses instead of pants decided to go the opposite direction.
I would argue that Harmoni Turner is the best defender in the Ivy League. She creates more problems for an offense with fewer teammates who can help out. She is Bez Mbeng.
Turner is also one of three players who are reasonable candidates for POY. The others are Kitty Henderson and Riley Weiss.
But if there were no DPOY and only a POY, clearly the choice is Turner. And that's the way the coaches called it for Turner as such.
Now here's where it gets interesting. I think the coaches decided to give DPOY to Henderson as a consolation prize of sorts. Kitty Henderson is a great player, obviously. To me, she is the clear runner-up for POY.
But is she the best defender in the League? I don't think so. Her statistics are marginally better than those of Turner, so you can't argue with the call as unjustifiable.
But if you were only going to name one DPOY in the absence of any other awards, would you pick Henderson or Turner?
Henderson has quicker hands, so I can see why her steals average is so amazing. But Turner is quicker on her feet and covers more ground for the defense overall. If you were a defensive coordinator, solely responsible for that end of the court, which would you draft first?
They're both great players and spreading the love with POY and DPOY is a reasonable solution which feels good for everybody. That's what most coaches in most conferences would do. No worries.
That's what makes the male coaches so unique in terms of going with one guy for both awards.
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