NCAA Basketball: Ranking the last 25 AP Player of the Year award winners
By Connor Hope
On the surface, Wisconsin Badgers great Frank Kaminsky was everything you don’t look for in an elite basketball player. He was slow, unathletic, a bit goofy and slow to his release. While these were all true of “Frank the Tank,” he made up for it with every single intangible you want in a college basketball player.
He was hard-working, intelligent, consistent, a great leader and lived with a team-first mindset. This wonky combination of goofiness and skill quickly made him one of the most loveable college basketball players in recent memory.
During his senior season, Kaminsky had the Badgers rolling, despite a relatively lackluster roster on paper. He, Sam Dekker and Nigel Hayes combined to form one of the most consistent and efficient frontcourts in recent memory.
This strength showed itself in the Final Four where the Badgers upset a heavily favored Kentucky Wildcats team that had been pegged as the greatest team in recent memory.
I am not sure any player has been more efficient in a single season thank Kaminsky. It is easy to see his scoring efficiency, as the 7-footer shot 58 percent from inside the arc, 42 percent from deep and 78 percent from the line.
However, he was also a very efficient passer and rim defender, finishing the year with a 1.6 assist-to-turnover ratio and nearly as many blocks as he had fouls committed.
A lot of people have argued that Kaminsky didn’t deserve the AP Player of the Year award over players like Jahlil Okafor or Willie Cauley-Stein. In the end, his consistency came out on top. With that said, his lack of true dominance keeps him at No. 20 on this list.