Preseason award lists continued to roll in on Tuesday afternoon with the release of the 2014-15 Bob Cousy Award Watch List. For those unfamiliar, the Cousy Award is given annually to the top point guard in men’s college basketball. This year’s list is led by Preseason AP All-Americans and likely favorites Marcus Paige of North Carolina and Fred VanVleet of Wichita State. The list also exhibits the strength of the position in the Big 12 this year. Four of the league’s 10 teams are represented, including Iowa State’s Monte Morris, Oklahoma’s Jordan Woodard, Texas’ Isaiah Taylor and West Virginia’s Juwan Staten. No Big 12 player has won the award since going back-to-back in 2006-07 (Acie Law IV, Texas A&M) and 2007-08 (D.J. Augustin, Texas), but this crop of league point guards provides plenty of talent that can compete for the prize this year.

Despite being considered the favorites once again to win the Big 12, Bill Self and Kansas might have some question marks at the point guard position. (Getty)

• Monte Morris averaged 6.8 points and 3.7 assists per game for the Cyclones during his freshman season and projects to replace DeAndre Kane as the starting point guard in Ames as a sophomore. The challenge for him will be to maintain his NCAA leading assist-to-turnover ratio (4.8-to-1) and great three-point shooting (40.6%) as he transitions into the role of Fred Hoiberg’s primary ball-handler.
• Another sophomore poised to have an excellent season is Oklahoma guard Jordan Woodard. As a freshman, Woodard averaged 10.3 points and 4.6 assists per game as the Sooners made the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year. He will, however, need to improve his two-point field goal shooting (35.2%) to become a more complete offensive player this season. According to Hoop-Math.com, he connected on only 29.0% of his shots away from the rim last season, which has to improve.

• The sophomore trend continues with the Longhorns’ Isaiah Taylor. As a freshman, Taylor impressed by posting 12.7 points and 4.0 assists per contest. He managed to attempt nearly a third of his shots at the rim, connecting on 49.2 percent of those tries. This season, Taylor will work to improve on his outside shooting where he only hit 5-of-19 three-point attempts as a freshman.
• The final member of the watch list is West Virginia guard Juwan Staten. As I wrote yesterday, Staten has the potential to be one of the top point guards in the country after averaging 18.1 points per game last season. The senior will shoulder an even larger burden for the Mountaineers this season after Eron Harris transferred to Michigan State during the offseason.

Noticeably absent from the list is a player from Kansas. Although projected to once again win the Big 12 regular season title, the Jayhawks are searching for consistency at the point guard spot. Bill Self has had so much success on the recruiting trail in recent years, but he has struggled to obtain top players at the position — at least since two-time All-American Sherron Collins graduated in 2010. Every starting point guard for Kansas since the 2010-11 season has had a turnover rate of greater than 20 percent, a statistic that has haunted Kansas during NCAA Tournament play, including Tyshawn Taylor’s five-turnover performance in the 2012 national championship game and Elijah Johnson’s five turnovers against Michigan in 2013. While the Jayhawks have been extremely successful during the regular season, the adage that March is all about guard play rings too true for fans of Kansas. Bill Self will turn to sophomore Frank Mason III and freshman Devonte’ Graham this season, and although Self praised both players after Monday’s scrimmage against Division II Washburn, it remains to be seen how the pair will perform against quality opposition.

Strong guard play is an important component of success in the NCAA Tournament, and as the Cousy Award Watch List reveals, the Big 12 isn’t lacking in talent at the point. However, the league favorites are stuck in limbo at the position and the biggest fear for those in Lawrence is that the past may repeat itself come March.

Chris Stone (136 Posts)

Chris Stone is a contributor to the Big 12 microsite. You can find him on Twitter @cstonehoops.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 5th, 2014 at 12:59 pm by Chris Stone and is filed under big 12, microsites. Tagged: Devonte Graham, feature, frank mason, iowa state, kansas, oklahoma, texas, west virginia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.