LEXINGTON, Ky. – Opponents have taken notice of star Kentuckyforward PJ Washington.
“He’s big and strong enough to physically dominate the most physical power forwards in the country and yet he’s quick enough and skilled enough to be able to step out on the floor and do things like a big guard,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said Saturday after Washington led UK with 24 points in the Wildcats’ 80-53 rout of the Tigers. “National Player of the Year candidate without question.”
Part of that praise seems premature considering Duke’s Zion Williamson is the prohibitive favorite to win National Player of the Year, but could Washington win the Southeastern Conference’s Player of the Year award?
After scoring at least 18 points in nine of Kentucky’s last 10 games, he has to be considered one of the leading candidates alongside LSU’s Tremont Waters and Tennessee’s Grant Williams.
The league coaches and Associated Press have handed their SEC Player of the Year awards to different players in the last two years — UK’s Malik Monk won the AP award in 2017 but not the coaches — after agreeing on the league’s top player in each of John Calipari’s first seven years at Kentucky.
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The most surefire path to SEC Player of the Year in that time frame has been earning the award as the best player on one of the league’s regular-season champion teams. Williams (coaches, 2018), Monk (AP, 2017), UK’s Tyler Ulis (2016), Florida’s Scottie Wilbekin (2014), UK’s Anthony Davis (2012), Florida’s Chandler Parsons (2011) and UK’s John Wall (2010) all followed that path to the award.
The award went to a top-10 pick in the subsequent NBA draft in 2010, 2012 and 2013, but just as often (2011, 2014, 2018) the award went to a player who was not drafted at all that year. The league’s scoring leader won one of the major awards in each of the last two years — Georgia’s Yante Maten (AP, 2018) and South Carolina’s Sindarius Thornwell (coaches, 2017) — but went eight straight years without winning the award before that.
A Kentucky player has won at least one of the major SEC Player of the Year awards in four of Calipari’s first nine years as coach. If Washington is to become the fifth, he will need to keep up his recent stellar play.
Here’s a look at the leading contenders. Their SEC ranking in each stat is in parentheses.
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PJ Washington (Kentucky)
Stats: 15.2 points (9), 7.9 rebounds (4), 46.2 percent 3-point shooting (N/A)
Why he might win: Washington’s season stats still lag behind the other contenders, but few can match his recent play as Kentucky has surged toward a possible NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed. In head-to-head matchups with Waters’ LSU and Williams’ Tennessee, Washington averaged 21.5 points and 7 rebounds per game. Washington is the best draft prospect of the contenders, currently projected as a borderline lottery pick in 2019.
Why he might not: For all of Washington’s recent dominance, the entire season must be considered, and no one would have confused him with an SEC Player of the Year when he failed to reach double digits in points in seven of 10 games Nov. 23 to Jan. 12. Washington has undoubtedly been Kentucky’s most important player in recent weeks, but voters using the “most valuable” criteria might count the Wildcats’ other top-level talent against him. A loss at Tennessee next week would put the Wildcats third in the league behind LSU and the Vols.
Read this:Should UK be a No. 1 seed? Compare its resume with other contenders
Tremont Waters (LSU)
Stats: 15.7 points (7), 5.9 assists (3), 3 steals (1)
Why he might win: Waters fits the bill as the best player on the league’s top team for the moment, with the Tigers controlling the race for the SEC Tournament No. 1 seed. Like Washington, Waters has stepped up his performances in conference play, ranking third in the league in points per game (18.8) and first in assists per game (6.3) in SEC games. He is probably the league’s most disruptive defender and could become the first person to win SEC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year since UK’s Tyler Ulis in 2016.
Why he might not: The “most valuable” argument can be used against Waters as well after LSU beat Tennessee without him and he was just OK in the Tigers’ controversial last-second win over Kentucky. Javonte Smart, Waters’ backup, totaled 29 points, 5 assists and 3 steals in the overtime win against Tennessee. In his three games before illness caused him to miss the Tennessee game, Waters shot just 35.9 percent from the field and 26.3 percent from 3-point range. He has the least name recognition of the three leading contenders.
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Grant Williams (Tennessee)
Stats: 19 points (1), 7.6 rebounds (6), 56.9 field-goal percentage (2)
Why he might win: The SEC coaches anointed Williams the league’s best player a year ago, giving him a lead in the race entering the season. Williams led Tennessee to 19 consecutive wins and the No. 1 ranking in the country, making him one of the most visible players in the country. No individual performance in the league this year has been better than Williams’ 43 points against Vanderbilt in which he hit 10 of 15 shots and all 23 free-throw attempts, and it's difficult to imagine Tennessee being anything close to a top-10 team without him.
Why he might not: Tennessee’s fall from grace in recent losses to Kentucky and LSU dealt a blow to Williams’ candidacy. He averaged 17 points and 8.5 rebounds in those two games but attempted just four shots against UK and was whistled for the foul that gave LSU its game-winning free throws. Williams gets another shot Saturday against Kentucky with UK bruiser Reid Travis unlikely to be available to occupy his attention in the rematch. This time, we’ll likely see a head-to-head matchup with Williams and Washington, the winner of which will have another point in his favor in the Player of the Year race.
See also:How Reid Travis' injury might actually benefit Kentucky basketball
Jon Hale:jahale@courier-journal.com; Twitter:@JonHale_CJ. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today:courier-journal.com/jonh.
