As dominant as LeBron James is in our NBA MVP list, Blake Griffin is perhaps even farther ahead in the college game.
With a month to go before the NCAA tournament starts, Griffin's play—and that of his Sooner team—has put him at the top of the short list of players to consider for the various top honors. Rankings are for stats as of Saturday, February 14, 2009.
| Player | Team |
||||
| 1 | Blake Griffin | Oklahoma | 27.4 | 712.4 | 685.3 |
| 2 | Luke Harangody | Notre Dame | 26.0 | 546.0 | 308.5 |
| 3 | John Bryant | Santa Clara | 25.2 | 705.6 | 352.8 |
| 4 | Ahmad Nivins | St. Joseph's | 24.6 | 590.4 | 344.2 |
| 5 | Stephen Curry | Davidson | 24.0 | 624.0 | 527.9 |
In SportsRatings' per-game output ratings, Griffin has a decent lead over Notre Dame's Luke Harangody. Griffin and Harangody both score (22.8 vs. 24.4) and rebound (10.7 vs 8.7) profusely. But Griffin's 63.8% field goal percentage gives him a huge edge.
John Bryant of Santa Clara (18.0 ppg, 13.8 rebounds) and Ahmad Nivins of St. Joe's (19.3/11.6) are two lesser-known players whose scoring and rebounding add up to the #3 and #4 total-points-per-game leaders.
Stephen Curry, the nation's leading scorer at 29.0 ppg, rounds out the top 5. Curry was injured on Saturday's win over Furman and is listed as day-to-day.
| Player | Team |
||||
| 1 | Blake Griffin | Oklahoma | 27.4 | 712.4 | 685.3 |
| 2 | John Bryant | Santa Clara | 25.2 | 705.6 | 352.8 |
| 3 | Stephen Curry | Davidson | 24.0 | 624.0 | 527.9 |
| 4 | Ahmad Nivins | St. Joseph's | 24.6 | 590.4 | 344.2 |
| 5 | Lester Hudson | Tenn-Martin | 23.9 | 573.6 | 430.2 |
Missing games won't hurt Curry's per-game average, of course, but it would hurt him in the Total Output category, where he's currently #3. Bryant is a close second to Griffin, so he has a decent chance of finishing at #1—at least for the regular season. Playing more games is a plus under this formulation.
Lester Hudson of Tennessee Martin makes the top five here; like Curry, he's one of the nation's top scorers at 27.9 points per game. He's also the kind of player who could lead his unheralded team to some upsets in the NCAA tournament, but the Skyhawks need to win the Ohio Valley tournament to get in, and that may or may not happen.
| Player | Team |
||||
| 1 | Blake Griffin | Oklahoma | 27.4 | 712.4 | 685.3 |
| 2 | Stephen Curry | Davidson | 24.0 | 624.0 | 527.9 |
| 3 | Hasheem Thabeet | Connecticut | 21.0 | 525.0 | 504.0 |
| 4 | DeJuan Blair | Pittsburgh | 21.6 | 518.4 | 476.9 |
| 5 | Gary Wilkinson | Utah St. | 18.3 | 475.8 | 439.2 |
Griffin's scoring, rebounding, and field goal percentage give him a big statistical lead in the first two charts, and his team's 24-1 performance so far puts him firmly at the top of the MVP race. Curry's Davidson team is doing quite respectably, too. If they have to play without him and lose, it will be reflected here, fair or not. To be the MVP you have to play, and missing too much detracts from your team's success.
The stellar performances of UConn, Pitt, and Utah State (5 losses total between them as of Saturday) prop up Hasheem Thabeet, DeJuan Blair, and Gary Wilkinson respectively. Of course, the play of Thabeet (10.8 rebounds, 4.4 blocks), Blair (12.3 rebounds, 60% from field), and Wilkinson (17.1 ppg, also 60% from field) has helped their teams to achieve that success. What goes around comes around.
It's not probably that Griffin will be caught at this point in any of the three categories, but a slump or injury could of course drop him a few notches, and just a few losses by the Sooners would put Curry (if he recovers soon) and the others within striking distance of the MVP award.
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