“We’re Back with this BS Again” – Kaufman-Renn Left Off Kareem & Malone Awards List

TKR inexplicably left off top 10 for both major awards one year after Braden Smith left off Cousy list

Being overlooked has always been part of the deal for Purdue and players have had to constantly had to battle against the bigger names around the sport. Duke, UNC, Kansas, and rival Indiana always seem to have an easier path when winning over voters in the polls and awards. When the oversight is as blatant as Braden Smith being left off the Top 10 Cousy Award last season, you’d think that it couldn’t happen again. Instead, it happened again to the Boilermakers.

Trey Kaufman-Renn has been having not only one of the best seasons in college basketball for a front court player this season, his stat line is one of the best in the history of the B1G. In fact, TKR is just one of four players this century to average 18 points, 6 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and shoot 60% from the field. Is it possible that there are 9 others players on each of the power forward and centers list? Let’s take a deeper look at both of those lists.

Karl Malone ‘Power Forward of the Year’

There are some obvious ones on here that won’t require an explanation like Johni Broome (Auburn), Norchad Omier (Baylor), and Tyson Degehart (Boise St.) but other players like Alex Karaban (UCONN) and J.T. Toppin (Texas Tech) have had a statistically worse season than TKR has. In fact, most players outside of Broome and Villanova’s Eric Dixon (23.8pts), TKR is averaging more points and more rebounds.

More so than just raw numbers and per game averages, TKR has been one of the most efficient players in college basketball while also having one of the highest usage rating. He is being used on 30.4% of possessions which ranks him 45th in the country while being 77th in effective field goal percentage at 60.8%. There are only six other players from major conferences (plus Ike from Gonzaga) who are rated more highly on usage rate which is why he is ranked as the 6th player in the National Player of the Year race according to Kenpom. Only Broome is ranked higher than him as a power forward nationally on that list.

Well, you could argue that he shouldn’t be placed as a power forward because he doesn’t play that position offensively with Caleb Furst taking the lion share of possessions at the 4 offensively. Then we should have expected to see his name placed in the top 10 for the Kareem Award, especially when the outcry of not being placed on the Malone Award was so loud.

Let’s just take a look at that list which will likely make you even more frustrated than the power forward one:

Again, there are names on here that need to be here considering what they are doing this season. Kalkbrenner (Creighton) is having another wonderful year while Hunter Dickinson (Kansas) has been ranked as the 4th player according to Kenpom’s National Player of the Year. As a side note, TKR is rated 6th in that same ranking just behind Kam Jones (Marquette).

As great of seasons as some of these players are having, it is an absolute joke to have Robbie Avila (Saint Louis), Oscar Cluff (SDSU), Dawson Garcia (Minnesota), Derik Queen (Maryland), and Asa Newell (Georgia) on this list without TKR. In fact, let’s take a closer look at the stat lines for these players compared to that of TKR:

Power Forwards:

Centers:

This is no different than what happened to Braden Smith last year when he was inexplicably left off the Couse Award’s Top 10. There was a huge pushback from many around the country along with Coach Painter being very vocal about his displeasure before the top five finalists were announced. It even led to this sound bite from Coach Painter in support of his point guard (who was named to the Cousy Award):

So how did those around the program respond to TKR being snubbed from both awards? It would be safe to say that many took the disrespect to one of the hardest workers in the program personally. Here are some sound bytes following Purdue’s win over USC on Friday night:

Braden Smith:

Head Coach Matt Painter:

Will TKR win either of those awards? It’ll be a tall task to do so with Broome on one list and Kalkbrenner and Dickinson on the other, but to leave him completely off both is just a crazy oversight. This isn’t a player putting up these kinds of stats for a team that isn’t winning (cough, cough Dawson Garcia) and it certainly isn’t against inferior opponents like Robbie Avila is getting at St. Louis. This is likely a first team All B1G player who has played one of the toughest schedules in the country and has yet to score in single digits all season being left off these award lists in favor of players who simply shouldn’t be on them.

The committee has the opportunity to again do the right thing and add TKR to the top 5 of either the Malone or Kareem Award lists. It’s simple inexcusable for a group of individuals who claim to be the best at determining who is having the best seasons. The only claim they would have would be that TKR doesn’t fit the ‘eye test’ as others do since his stats tell a different story. Even then, go look at what TKR has done against others on that list when he has gone head to head. Surprise, he has won those matchups more often than not.

WHERE DO YOU THINK TKR SHOULD BE PLACED? HOW MANY GUYS IS HE BETTER THAN ON EACH LIST?