Naismith Hall of Fame airballs the Cousy Award

The Naismith Hall of Fame announced the 20 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award today, which is given to the nation’s top point guard. Last year’s winner was Kendall Marshall from North Carolina. This year’s winner just might be Matthew Dellavedova Kevin Pangos.

In some bizarre twist the Hall recognized that a WCC point guard needed to be on the list, then they didn’t choose the right one. Don’t get me wrong, Pangos is a heck of player. But when it comes to running the point, he’s no Delly.

Let’s go to the stats. I don’t typically rely on things like points per game or assists per game, but I know that the Hall certainly doesn’t rely on advanced metrics, so I won’t either (and those paint an even stronger picture for Delly).

First, a point guard needs to get his team involved. And assists are a good surrogate measurement if you’re too lazy of a voter to watch film. Assists per game:

Matthew Dellavedova: 6.7

Kevin Pangos: 3.7

Next, point guards in the modern game need to score. Points per game:

Matthew Dellavedova: 17.4

Kevin Pangos: 11.8

And they need to be able to shoot. It does little good to feed your bigs in the post if the defense can simply collapse on them without worry. So point guards need to be able to make the 3-ball. 3-pt%:

Matthew Dellavedova: 41.9

Kevin Pangos: 41.0

I have no idea what the voters have been looking at. The only explanation I can think of is that they turned on the Gonzaga/Baylor game, watched Pangos score 31, and thought “why not?”

Kudos to the finalists.