ESPN Blogger Explains Big Ten Award Picks

The Boiling Point: ESPN blog picks Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger as the Big Ten’s Player of the Year and Purdue’s Matt Painter as Coach of the Year.

It’s that time of year where everyone weighs in on conference awards and Eamonn Brennan of ESPN.com tabbed Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger the Big Ten’s Player of the Year and Purdue’s Matt Painter as Coach of the Year. Brennan did say the conference’s best player is somewhat of a toss-up between Sullinger, Purdue’s JaJuan Johnson and E’twaun Moore and also Wisconsin’s Jordan Taylor and Jon Leuer.

"Johnson is arguably the most important player in the conference. Without him, Purdue would have next to nothing in its frontcourt, and even with consistent, focused defensive attention, Johnson has remained one of the best forwards — arguably the best — in the country this season. His teammate, Moore, is just as deserving. Both players are also tremendous on the defensive end, and both can share credit for giving this Purdue team a legitimate chance at a national title even without injured forward Robbie Hummel."

As for the coaching award, it was a bit simpler for Brennan.

"Still, the best and most important coaching job of the season has come out of the elite triumvirate of Ohio State, Purdue and Wisconsin. The team? Purdue. The coach? Matt Painter. Few coaches are forced to face what Painter faced in October when Hummel lost his senior season to a second ACL tear. After Hummel’s injury, Purdue went from a Final Four favorite to a middling Big Ten team, or so went the common consensus. Instead, the Boilermakers have a shot to share the Big Ten title with Ohio State. Why? Because Painter rebuilt his team around Johnson and Moore, with pieces from the role-player scrapheap – guys like Lewis Jackson, Ryne Smith, D.J. Byrd and Kelsey Barlow. Who? Exactly. None of those players is a five-star recruit; none of them is near the player Hummel was. But together, thanks to Painter’s brilliant guidance, they’ve made Purdue a legitimate national-title contender. Coaching jobs don’t get much better than this."

Who’s your pick for those awards? Do you agree with Brennan?