College Basketball: Busting Brackets Midseason Awards
Mid-season Most Valuable Player
Mary Langenfeld-USA TODAY Sports
Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin
“Frank the Tank” won this award when his Badgers traveled to Rutgers early in the Big Ten season. Due to a concussion, Kaminsky sat out the game against the Scarlet Knights, a bottom-feeder in its third different conference in three years. Shockingly, the Badgers lost. Nothing could illustrate Frank Kaminsky’s value to the Badgers better than witnessing a lost to Rutgers at the RAC while Kaminsky watched helplessly from the sidelines (looking more like an IT consultant than a future first-round draft pick.
When Kaminsky is on the floor, he not only gives his team a legitimate pro-level back-to-the-basket presence, but he also enables Wisconsin to space the floor to an extent that players like Sam Dekker and Traevon Jackson (get well soon) become exponentially more potent. Much like the teams that featured Brian Butch in the middle during the 2000s, Wisky is at its best with a formidable presence in the middle, and Kaminsky is much more than formidable. He’s arguably the best player in the country, but no doubt the most important. In March, the Badgers (assuming Traevon Jackson is healthy) will go as far as the Tank takes them…ya know, like last year.