AP All-American basketball teams

[dabvu2498]

Associated Press All-Americans
First Team

• Kevin Durant, Texas
• Alando Tucker, Wisconsin
• Acie Law IV, Texas A&M
• Arron Afflalo, UCLA
• Greg Oden, Ohio State

Second Team

• Nick Fazekas, Nevada
• Tyler Hansbrough, UNC
• Chris Lofton, Tennessee
• Jared Dudley, Boston College
• Joakim Noah, Florida

Third Team

• Jeff Green, Georgetown
• Al Horford, Florida
• Aaron Brooks, Oregon
• Al Thornton, Florida State
• Aaron Gray, Pittsburgh


Discuss

Personally, I enjoy how the SEC Coaches poll player of the year does not make either team, but 3 others from the conference do.

[Red Leader]

I still think Greg Oden is overrated. Not to say he's not a good player, he is, but he's not a "franchise" player in the NBA. He's still young, so he has time to become that guy, but right now, he's not there, IMO. I think his being named to the first team is a gift.

[redsfan30]

How Greg Oden gets first team and Mike Conley isn't even listed is beyond me.

[Red Leader]

Originally Posted by redsfan30

How Greg Oden gets first team and Mike Conley isn't even listed is beyond me.

I'm glad someone else thought the same way. I'm sure many know me on this board and just think I'm an OSU hater. It's true that I do not like the College of Columbus, but mainly, that's only for football. Not saying that I like the College of Columbus in any other sport, but I don't despise them nearly as much. Having said all of that, I thought I'd open this thread back up to a bunch of OSU fans saying "what are you talking about? Greg Oden is teh GOD!!!!!" Like I said, I don't think Greg Oden is a bad player at all. I do think he's over-hyped and overrated (at least this year he was). He does not deserve to be a first team All-American, IMO.

[bucksfan2]

Oden is good but he hasn't played to his potential yet. As an OSU grad I am being selfish and want him to stay for another year and think it would do him some good.

I think its a joke that Jeff Green is on the 3rd team. He is one of the best players in the country and his stats probably as good as they could be becaues he buys into the team game and makes everyone around him better.

Originally Posted by redsfan30

How Greg Oden gets first team and Mike Conley isn't even listed is beyond me.

Exactly what I was thinking.

[Red Leader]

I think Oden needs to work on his offensive game before going pro. He's not an elite scorer yet and he should be there on the college level before he takes the next step.

I will add that it's probably a very difficult task to name a basketball All-American team. I mean, there are only 5 spots for all Div I teams. That's a tough assignment. Oden's the only one listed on the first team that I don't think deserved it. I could see an argument for Hansbrough and Noah for the first team and there are many, many deserving players that aren't even listed.

[15fan]

Jared Dudley 2nd Team AA.

That doesn't speak well to either the quality of talent in the game, or the quality of folks who are given ballots. The guy's a nice player and all, but I find it hard to buy the argument that he's one of the top 10 players in the college game in 2006-2007.

[dabvu2498]

Originally Posted by 15fan

Jared Dudley 2nd Team AA.

That doesn't speak well to either the quality of talent in the game, or the quality of folks who are given ballots. The guy's a nice player and all, but I find it hard to buy the argument that he's one of the top 10 players in the college game in 2006-2007.

Agreed. He was the one for sure I would take Derrick Byars (even though I am biased) ahead of.

I think he recieved that in recognition of the fact that BC had a nice year even though they lost those kids to disciplinary action. His stats were pretty good, but made fairly gaudy because he was really the only on on that team that could score the ball.

[BuckeyeRed27]

I wasn't sure at first if GO should be a 1st team AA either, but then I considered two things.
1) Who would you replace him with? There are certainly other deserving candidates but no one really jumps off the page from the 2nd and 3rd teams as being "snubs" to me.
2) I wanted to see how Oden's numbers compared with other "dominant" big men as freshmen. I just looked at Shaq, Robinson and Ewing and when considering just PPG and RPG Oden looks pretty good. Oden averaged 15.4/9.5 this season. Ewing was 12.7/7.5 his first year, Robinson was 7.6/4 and Shaq was 13.9/12. Now all of those guys had monster sophomore years and if Oden comes back next year I would expect the same. I think this is relevent because people have been saying he's overhyped and overrated, yet his numbers are very much in line with big men that dominated the NBA for over a decade. Now whether or not that warrents him getting a 1st team AA nod this season is still up for debate, but I still think that the hype is warrented.

[Cedric]

Greg Oden is overrated only in the minds of unrealistic, irrational sports fans.

He's a dominant center and most of that dominating was done with one hand. He along with Mike Conley Jr is the key to the Buckeyes half court offense and he controls the whole other end of the court.

Just take a sneak peak at the Buckeyes scoring margins with and without Oden and come back to me.

[Cedric]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeRed27

I wasn't sure at first if GO should be a 1st team AA either, but then I considered two things.
1) Who would you replace him with? There are certainly other deserving candidates but no one really jumps off the page from the 2nd and 3rd teams as being "snubs" to me.
2) I wanted to see how Oden's numbers compared with other "dominant" big men as freshmen. I just looked at Shaq, Robinson and Ewing and when considering just PPG and RPG Oden looks pretty good. Oden averaged 15.4/9.5 this season. Ewing was 12.7/7.5 his first year, Robinson was 7.6/4 and Shaq was 13.9/12. Now all of those guys had monster sophomore years and if Oden comes back next year I would expect the same. I think this is relevent because people have been saying he's overhyped and overrated, yet his numbers are very much in line with big men that dominated the NBA for over a decade. Now whether or not that warrents him getting a 1st team AA nod this season is still up for debate, but I still think that the hype is warrented.

There is nothing Greg Oden could do to live up to the expectations. He is the only true inside presence on a final four team, as a freshman and yet he still get's questioned. Just another case of irrational cynicism that fans have. Hell I hear people questioning Lebron James on the radio already.

It's just not a good time to be a reasonable sports fan anymore. Too many opinions out there all over the airwaves.

[Cedric]

Originally Posted by Red Leader

I'm glad someone else thought the same way. I'm sure many know me on this board and just think I'm an OSU hater. It's true that I do not like the College of Columbus, but mainly, that's only for football. Not saying that I like the College of Columbus in any other sport, but I don't despise them nearly as much. Having said all of that, I thought I'd open this thread back up to a bunch of OSU fans saying "what are you talking about? Greg Oden is teh GOD!!!!!" Like I said, I don't think Greg Oden is a bad player at all. I do think he's over-hyped and overrated (at least this year he was). He does not deserve to be a first team All-American, IMO.

Don't say such irrational things if you don't want people responding to your posts. And your ignorant, immature rants about Ohio State fans don't disguise your jealousy.

You and many others on this site have a bitter hate for Ohio State. That doesn't mean I'm gonna stop talking about how irrational the comments are.

The intimidation tactics don't work on me.

[dabvu2498]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeRed27

I wasn't sure at first if GO should be a 1st team AA either, but then I considered two things.
1) Who would you replace him with? There are certainly other deserving candidates but no one really jumps off the page from the 2nd and 3rd teams as being "snubs" to me.
2) I wanted to see how Oden's numbers compared with other "dominant" big men as freshmen. I just looked at Shaq, Robinson and Ewing and when considering just PPG and RPG Oden looks pretty good. Oden averaged 15.4/9.5 this season. Ewing was 12.7/7.5 his first year, Robinson was 7.6/4 and Shaq was 13.9/12. Now all of those guys had monster sophomore years and if Oden comes back next year I would expect the same. I think this is relevent because people have been saying he's overhyped and overrated, yet his numbers are very much in line with big men that dominated the NBA for over a decade. Now whether or not that warrents him getting a 1st team AA nod this season is still up for debate, but I still think that the hype is warrented.

You realize that David Robinson was 6'7 when he was a freshman, right?

[BoxingRed]

One thing is certain IMO, Jeff Green will have the best pro career of any of these guys. His game and body is already well suited for it. Hard to find a weak point anywhere in terms of ability to excell at the next level, perhaps rebounding. He seems to pick up that aspect of his game when needed as well.
Some might even argue that the Vandy game showed he even has the NBA pseudo-walk down to a tee.