Northern Iowa’s Seth Tuttle

5 Under-The-Radar National Player Of The Year Candidates

While March and April are undoubtedly for the NCAA tournament, February has, at least in recent years, turned into the month for three things: bubble talk, 1-seed talk, and player of the year talk.

This year, Wisconsin senior Frank Kaminsky and Duke freshman Jahlil Okafor have been running 1-2 for most of the season in the POY discussion, with Ohio State’s D’Angelo Russell and Kentucky’s Karl-Anthony Towns making cameos here and there.

While one of those four will likely win the award, there are some guys who are not getting talked about as much as they should be:

1. Delon Wright, senior guard, Utah

Wright does it all for the Utes, who have one of their best teams in years. In terms of per-game numbers, he averages 14.3 points per game and 5.4 assists per game, but he is much more than that. Wright shoots 57.9 percent on twos, has an assist rate an amazing 20 percent higher than his turnover rate, averages 2.2 steals per game (and ranks 28th nationally in steal rate), and is a good perimeter defender as well. He’s not really under the radar except in the sense that no one seems to be putting him in the same class as Kaminsky and Okafor, and they should be. Of all the guys on this list, Wright is the one with the best claim to winning the award.

2. Seth Tuttle, senior forward, Northern Iowa

In guiding the Panthers to a national top 10 ranking, Tuttle has put both Northern Iowa and himself on the map. Tuttle carries the offense, attempting over a fourth of the team’s shots while on the floor, and even with all of those shots he ranks fifth in the entire country in effective field goal percentage. Put it this way: he’s been a more effective scorer than Okafor, shooting roughly the same percentage as the Duke freshman on twos, but Tuttle is also shooting 48.6 percent on threes as well.

If you then consider that Tuttle is a good defensive rebounder, draws a lot of fouls, and shoots 77 percent from the line, you have the makings of one of the best all-around offensive players in the country. The lone thing holding him back is his competition. The Missouri Valley is better than it was a year ago, but the league is still 10th in KenPom’s conference ratings. Tuttle’s rebounding ability would probably translate to a major conference, but I’m not sure his scoring or defense would.

3. Anthony Gill, junior forward, Virginia

The injured Justin Anderson gets most of Virginia’s publicity on the offensive end, and with him out the team’s offense has sputtered, but it’s Gill who is probably the team’s best player on that end of the floor. He averages just 11.3 points per game, but in Virginia’s offense, which averages just 58.2 possessions per game and takes 21 seconds per possession, those are quality numbers indeed. Gill shoots 57 percent on twos and is the 12th best offensive rebounder in the country. Even though he doesn’t do much defensively in terms of things that show up in a box score, he also gets credit for playing on one of the best defensive teams in the country.

Bobby Portis

4. Bobby Portis, sophomore forward, Arkansas

Portis has been incredible for the Razorbacks this season, and has turned it up a notch in conference play. He is second in the league in terms of how many shots he takes, and is still shooting 57 percent on twos. Portis ranks 7th in effective field goal percentage, 6th in true shooting percentage, 6th in block percentage, and manages to basically carry Arkansas’ offense while still ranking 7th in the league in turnover percentage. He is a no-doubt all-SEC player, and he has a definite chance of landing an All-American spot.

5. Kyle Wiltjer, junior forward, Gonzaga

As I usually do with these lists, I am going to finish with a guy who is not really under the radar. Gonzaga is on track to grab a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, and the guy most often mentioned as to why that’s the case is Wiltjer. That he’s done well in the Pacific Northwest isn’t much of a surprise, but just how well he has done is eye-popping: Wiltjer attempts just under a third of the team’s shots while he’s on the floor, and he still manages to shoot 56.8 percent on twos and 46.8 percent from three. He also never turns the ball over, and in fact turns it over less than any player in the WCC. He’s also improved his rebounding in conference play.

Wiltjer’s main obstacles to a player of the year award or even an All-American slot are that, as important as shooting is, he doesn’t offer much other than that. He’s improved defensively, but certainly isn’t a stopper by any means. Furthermore, as is the case with Tuttle, the quality of Gonzaga’s competition should hurt him. Still, Wiltjer’s shooting ability will give Gonzaga a chance in any NCAA tournament game it finds itself in this season.

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