LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The biggest airball this season was not launched by anybody in the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten or Southeastern conferences. I'm not here to air out any player.
No, the biggest airball of the 2024-25 season came from Springfield, Massachusetts, home of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
I don't have a name. I only have a list. And several weeks ago, the Hall announced its 10 mid-season finalists for the Bob Cousy Award, which it awards annually to the nation's top point guard.
Over the last 21 seasons, guys like Tristen Newton of UConn, Ja Morant of Murray State and Jalen Brunson of Villanova have won the Cousy.
I don't know who'll win the Cousy this winter. But I do know that the deeper we play into this season, the Naismith people fired a colossal airball by leaving Louisville point guard Chucky Hepburn off their Top 10 list.
There are point guards who average more points than Hepburn. There are guys who collect more rebounds and assists. There are players who commit fewer turnovers.
But when you study the complete stat line and consider guys who impact winning, Hepburn has played his way into the middle of the discussion. His case to win the award is as strong as the case you can make for Cousy favorites like Mark Sears of Alabama, Braden Smith of Purdue or Kam Jones of Marquette.
BasketballReference website, a top analytics site, agrees. BR created a statistic it calls WinShares. The site describes WinShares as an estimate of the wins contributed by a player by their offense and defense. It is the basketball equivalent of WAR (wins above replacement value) that voters site in Most Valuable Player discussions.
BR credits Hepburn with 4.6 WinShares. That tops the players on Pat Kelsey's U of L roster. J'Vonne Hadley is second at 3.9, followed by Reyne Smith at 3.5, followed by James Scott at 3.2, followed by Terrence Edwards Jr at 2.9.
Of the 10 players on the Cousy list, four have generated more win shares than Hepburn: Jones of Marquette and Javon Small of West Virginia are at 5.0; Ryan Nembhard of Gonzaga and Purdue's Smith are at 4.7.
But there are two other numbers where Hepburn leads all 10 Cousy mid-season nominees — steals and another BasketballReference-created statistic that the site calls TrueShootingPercentage.
With 2.4 per game, Hepburn averages more steals than any of the 10 nominees. Hepburn's job is to make the opposing point guard squirm. It's been a job that he has done remarkably well.
With his ability to anticipate and willingness to play with physicality, Hepburn sets the tone at both ends of the floor. In ACC games, Louisville's defense ranks in the top five in effective field goal percentage, turnovers created, not sending opponents to the free throw line and three-point shooting percentage. Hepburn's fingerprints are all over that performance.
And Hepburn plays that defense while averaging 15.6 points, six assists and 3.3 rebounds. He does not hunt shots. He does not over-dribble. He's about winning the game, not about winning the highlight videos.
TrueShootingPercentage is a staple of current basketball analytics. The number is a measure of "shooting efficiency that takes into account two-point field goals, three-point field goals and free throws." In other words, your entire offensive stroke.
Hepburn's TrueShootingPercentage is .599. Of the 10 players on the Cousy List, the next best percentage is .593 by Rutgers freshman Dylan Harper. Florida's Walter Clayton Jr., sits at .586, followed by Sears at .583.
My guess is Sears, a fifth-year senior, will win the award. He started the season in the pole position.
Sears tops everybody on the list with his 19-point scoring average. Coaches voted him the preseason player of the year in the SEC, clearly the best conference this season. Alabama has been ranked in the Top 10 all season and remains a contender to win the national title.
Clayton is also a solid candidate for leading Florida to 24 victories. Jones has been terrific at Marquette. Like Hepburn, Zakai Zeigler has been a tenacious defender at Tennessee. Purdue would struggle without Smith, who is tirelessly averaging 36.5 minutes per game.
But across the board, Chucky Hepburn has been as prolific as any of those guys, an irrepressible force in Louisville's 14-game improvement (so far) over last season.
The Bob Cousy Watch List remains incomplete without Hepburn's name on it.
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