The choice for National Player of the Year is clear.
Adam Morrison is the nation's leading scorer and has led Gonzaga to a No. 4 national ranking, a perfect conference record and the Bulldogs' third-consecutive West Coast Conference title.
Although J.J. Redick has made his case for the top individual honor in college basketball, his recent struggles should cost him.
Morrison and Redick had been one upping each other with 30- and 40-point performances all season. But the Duke guard recently lost his golden touch and has shot 22 percent from beyond the arc and 29 percent overall in the Blue Devils' last four games. More importantly, his team is 2-2 over that span.
In Gonzaga's last four games, Morrison has averaged 23 points and 5.5 boards while guiding the Bulldogs to their seventh WCC tournament championship in eight years.
True, Morrison does play in the weak WCC, but Gonzaga does not have nearly as talented a roster as Duke-Morrison is basically a one-man show in Spokane.
Redick plays alongside fellow preseason All-American Shelden Williams and a host of McDonald's All-Americans. Most college basketball fans probably could not name another player on Gonzaga's roster.
Without Morrison, the Bulldogs wouldn't even be sniffing the top 25. Without Redick, the Blue Devils would still be amongst the nation's elite.
The ACC is clearly superior to the WCC, and Redick faces better defenders on a daily basis, but the Bulldogs have still played many worthy opponents. Gonzaga was one of five ranked teams at the Maui Invitational and Morrison led his team to wins over Maryland and Michigan State, who were ranked 23rd and 12th at the time, respectively.
In the Bulldogs' triple-overtime victory over the Spartans, Morrison scored 43 points and was 11-for-12 from the line while playing 52 minutes.
A few weeks later against Oklahoma State, Morrison also did something Redick has failed to do this season: hit a game-winning shot.
With his team trailing by one, Morrison banked in a three with the clock expiring to send the Bulldogs to a 64-62 victory. Redick has not been in the same situation as Morrison was against the Cowboys, but he did misfire on a three pointer with six seconds left that would have beaten Florida State Feb 4. and negated the need for overtime.
Morrison and Redick have had a battle for the ages atop the scoring charts, but in the end, Morrison deserves to beat Redick out in player of the year balloting.
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