What Else Could We Do? Scoring/Rebounding Leader But Not MVP

March 9th, 2012 - 19:24

Was Kevin Jones, the Big East's leading scorer and rebounder, denied the conference's Player of the Year award partially out of spite because West Virginia is leaving to become a member of the Big 12? Mountaineer conspiratorialists might believe there is a mountain of divorce evidence regarding ulterior motives by Big East coaches, but Jones isn't the first league scoring/rebounding leader in a Power 6 alliance to fail to be honored.

Notre Dame's Luke Harangody was bypassed in the Big East only three years ago. In other elite loops, scoring/rebounding leaders failed to capture MVP acclaim four times in the ACC and Big Ten, three times in the Pacific-12 and once in the Big 12/Big Eight. The backhanded slap-in-the-face never has happened in the SEC.

Among the individuals in this dubious "power play" category is Minnesota's Kris Humphries, who was shunned by Big Ten voters long before his 72-day power couple "marriage" to reality TV personality Kim Kardashian. Humphries reportedly will serve as his own lawyer in their divorce proceedings, seeking her to admit she did not intend to pursue a genuine marriage with him.

If genuinely successful "scoring" a win against a famous Hollywood divorce lawyer, Humphries might be able to rebound from being the big butt of incessant late-night loser jokes mocking him. He could employ his newfound legal skills to discern whether there was any fraud or malicious intent involving the following chronological list of conference scoring/rebounding leaders who didn't secure MVP awards in power leagues:

Season League MVP School Conference Scoring/Rebounding Leader School
1956-57 Lennie Rosenbluth North Carolina ACC Grady Wallace South Carolina
1958-59 Lou Pucillo N.C. State ACC John Richter N.C. State
1958-59 Johnny Green Michigan State Big Ten M.C. Burton Michigan
1963-64 Jeff Mullins Duke ACC Billy Cunningham North Carolina
1970-71 Jim Cleamons Ohio State Big Ten George McGinnis Indiana
1977-78 Phil Ford North Carolina ACC Rod Griffin Wake Forest
1981-82 Lester Conner Oregon State Pacific-10 Mark McNamara California
1983-84 Jim Rowinski Purdue Big Ten Cory Blackwell Wisconsin
1984-85 Wayne Carlander USC Pacific-10 A.C. Green Oregon State
1989-90 Doug Smith Missouri Big Eight Shaun Vandiver Colorado
2003-04 Devin Harris Wisconsin Big Ten Kris Humphries Minnesota
2005-06 Brandon Roy Washington Pacific-10 Leon Powe California
2008-09 DeJuan Blair Pittsburgh Big East Luke Harangody Notre Dame
Hasheem Thabeet Connecticut Big East
2011-12 Jae Crowder Marquette Big East Kevin Jones West Virginia