Big East 2023-2024

[bleedblue]

Kalk won because his defensive instincts in the 12-15 foot semi radius around the basket vastly changes every game and what teams are even willing to TRY to do. He alters so much on top of the blocked shots. In that sense, he changes the game from a defensive standpoint way more than Carter or Stevie Williams. Anyone that knows basketball understands this (including all the coaches in the league). Yes, he had some games where guys have taken it to him, and put up a bunch of points on him. I think a lot of that is fatigue, and the fact that our system has him run the floor to the frontcourt so hard so many times, which pays dividends for us, but does at times have him playing fatigued for stretches because we are so thin at the 5.

Congrats Big Man!!

The best argument for Kalk is if you take him off the roster the jays defense goes from top 25 in the country to about 100th. If you take Carter, Clingin or Steve Mitchell off their rosters they do not fall nearly as far in defensive metrics.

[SeattleJay]

Kalk won because his defensive instincts in the 12-15 foot semi radius around the basket vastly changes every game and what teams are even willing to TRY to do. He alters so much on top of the blocked shots. In that sense, he changes the game from a defensive standpoint way more than Carter or Stevie Williams. Anyone that knows basketball understands this (including all the coaches in the league). Yes, he had some games where guys have taken it to him, and put up a bunch of points on him. I think a lot of that is fatigue, and the fact that our system has him run the floor to the frontcourt so hard so many times, which pays dividends for us, but does at times have him playing fatigued for stretches because we are so thin at the 5.

Congrats Big Man!!

Agree. The fact that the coaches voted on this proves that someone who understands basketball and has to prepare to play against Kalk makes this an unquestionable award.

[vivid_dude]

Totally agree about the importance of Kalkbrenner. It's reflected every time he gets that rare break on the bench, or misses a game. I don't know of a player in all of college basketball other than Kalkbrenner and Zach Edey where the opposition must gameplan their entire offensive AND defensive strategies around one guy. The best athletes in the country drive toward the paint, see Kalkbrenner and deviate from their sincerest intentions.

Kalk is the DPOY. I'd argue he's the MVP in the league too. That doesn't always equate to Player of the Year, but you couldn't convince me any other player is more valuable. And I'm totally unbiased.

[SDJay]

Kalk won because his defensive instincts in the 12-15 foot semi radius around the basket vastly changes every game and what teams are even willing to TRY to do. He alters so much on top of the blocked shots. In that sense, he changes the game from a defensive standpoint way more than Carter or Stevie Williams. Anyone that knows basketball understands this (including all the coaches in the league). Yes, he had some games where guys have taken it to him, and put up a bunch of points on him. I think a lot of that is fatigue, and the fact that our system has him run the floor to the frontcourt so hard so many times, which pays dividends for us, but does at times have him playing fatigued for stretches because we are so thin at the 5.

Congrats Big Man!!

Agree. The fact that the coaches voted on this proves that someone who understands basketball and has to prepare to play against Kalk makes this an unquestionable award.

+1

[AttyAlum]

I think a lot of our fans take him for granted. Yeah, if he has to run around chasing guys behind the arc it isn’t his strong suit, but he’s a helluva rim defender that rarely fouls and plays pretty much the whole game. As someone said above, some of best athletes and dunkers in America are completely intimidated by Kalk.

[Savannah Jay]

Kalk won because his defensive instincts in the 12-15 foot semi radius around the basket vastly changes every game and what teams are even willing to TRY to do. He alters so much on top of the blocked shots. In that sense, he changes the game from a defensive standpoint way more than Carter or Stevie Williams. Anyone that knows basketball understands this (including all the coaches in the league). Yes, he had some games where guys have taken it to him, and put up a bunch of points on him. I think a lot of that is fatigue, and the fact that our system has him run the floor to the frontcourt so hard so many times, which pays dividends for us, but does at times have him playing fatigued for stretches because we are so thin at the 5.

Congrats Big Man!!

Agree. The fact that the coaches voted on this proves that someone who understands basketball and has to prepare to play against Kalk makes this an unquestionable award.

I listened to opposing coaches post game pressers this year. All of them talk about Kalkbrenner, what he does for our defense, and how they have to game plan for him. He doesn't guard just one guy and opposing coaches change their game plan based on Kalk. Anyone who listened to those coaches talk about him and understand they are the ones voting for this award, knew this was a forgone conclusion. Congrats to Kalk.

The only one that could have challenged Ryan for this was Clingan, and between injuries and foul trouble he wasn't the same disruptive force.

[Realhoops]

Kalk won because his defensive instincts in the 12-15 foot semi radius around the basket vastly changes every game and what teams are even willing to TRY to do. He alters so much on top of the blocked shots. In that sense, he changes the game from a defensive standpoint way more than Carter or Stevie Williams. Anyone that knows basketball understands this (including all the coaches in the league). Yes, he had some games where guys have taken it to him, and put up a bunch of points on him. I think a lot of that is fatigue, and the fact that our system has him run the floor to the frontcourt so hard so many times, which pays dividends for us, but does at times have him playing fatigued for stretches because we are so thin at the 5.

Congrats Big Man!!

Agree. The fact that the coaches voted on this proves that someone who understands basketball and has to prepare to play against Kalk makes this an unquestionable award.

I listened to opposing coaches post game pressers this year. All of them talk about Kalkbrenner, what he does for our defense, and how they have to game plan for him. He doesn't guard just one guy and opposing coaches change their game plan based on Kalk. Anyone who listened to those coaches talk about him and understand they are the ones voting for this award, knew this was a forgone conclusion. Congrats to Kalk.

The only one that could have challenged Ryan for this was Clingan, and between injuries and foul trouble he wasn't the same disruptive force.

Carter has a case as the best one-on-one perimeter defender in the league. But teams don't change their whole gameplan knowing he's going to impact the one best individual player like they have to do to address what Kalk does and how our defense forces everything toward him. You don't see a dozen or more plays per game where somebody gets the ball and tries to run a normal play in the team's offense but then sees Carter then and panics and throws it out to someone else on the perimeter. Fans of other teams think defense just equates to one on one guarding of someone and can't fathom all of the impact that the coaches clearly feel that doesn't show up in direct stats every game.

[HandDownManDown]

Ask Castle what he thinks of Ryan. He drove in and got 2 hand blocked and that pretty much ended his game.

[jaykorver]

https://apnews.com/article/all-big-east-82921df068ac1b349c9995e14d2b6ca7

AP Big East all-conference awards and teams. The only unanimous selections are Kolek and Carter yet Newton is the POY. Scheierman and Kalkbrenner are 1st team selections and Trey is a 2nd team pick.

[3ontheway]

Winner gets POY. Not a surprise at all. Baylor was deserving and was far more instrumental in CU's 2nd place finish than Newton was in UCONN's dominating 1st place finish. I think Spencer, Clingan, and Castle were as important, or more important honestly, to their success than Newton. Newton is a great player, but was not the true POY in BE this year. If I had a vote it would have been Baylor, Carter, Kolek, Newton in that order.