Are you rollin' with Nolan?
If you aren't already, you'd best get your 3-point goggles ready because Nolan Smith's National Player of the Year campaign is in full swing. With 25 percent of Naismith Trophy voting based on fan input, the senior will have to rely on Duke's widespread fan base to beat out Ohio State's Jared Sullinger and BYU's Jimmer Fredette.
Apparently a product of the student fan blog Crazie Talk as well as the blog Devil Wolfing, ndotsmittypoy.com promotes "The People's Champ" between now and when the fan voting begins in March. The site is full of statistics, highlight videos, and most importantly, directions for voting once the time comes.
The site also has endorsements from all over the basketball world, including Blue Devil teammate Kyrie Irving, Duke signees Alex Murphy, Quinn Cook and Rasheed Sulaimon, and two of his former high school coaches, among others.
But Smith's most ringing endorsement came from a former teammate now playing in the NBA: Kevin Durant. In a blog post yesterday, Durant wrote in strong support of his friend.
"One of my childhood friends is Duke Guard, Nolan Smith. I’ve known him since I was 9, 10 years old, when we first started playing against each other. He’s having a phenomenal type of year! A Player of the Year type of year, First Team All-American type of year…so he really deserves a lot of credit. I think a lot of people are forgetting about him with all these young freshmen coming in. But Nolan’s having a phenomenal year and hopefully he’s able to cap off a great season."
Unfortunately, Durant's post comes weeks after tweeting "Jimmer Fredette is the best scorer in the world!!" on Twitter. And while Sullinger is yet to have a website created in his honor, Fredette's own page is awfully convincing, even offering support to those who have "been Jimmered" throughout the season.
Who do you think deserves to be the Player of the Year: Smith, Fredette or Sullinger?
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