Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Postseason honors.

Not a banner year for the Hoosiers in terms of all-conference honors, but the Big Ten released its postseason awards today. Unsurprisingly, Alando Tucker, Greg Oden, and Thad Matta were player/freshman/coach of the year. Oden also received defensive player of the year. DJ White was named second team All Big Ten by both the media and coaches. Ditto Rod Wilmont for the third team. Earl Calloway was honorable mention from the media.

Also, for the first time in several years, IU held a postseason awards banquet. Nearly everyone received a trophy. DJ White and Rod Wilmont shared the Most Outstanding Player award. As IU fans for a certain age will recall, IU used to have such a banquet between the regular season and the NCAA tournament. In 1992, after IU blew a share of the Big Ten title by losing the season finale at Mackey against a mediocre Purdue team, Bob Knight (after a, er tense flight back to Bloomington), abruptly canceled the banquet, which was open to the public and served as the primary fundraiser for some nonprofit organization. That IU team recovered nicely, reaching the Final Four, but the banquet didn't return for 15 years.

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