2020-21 northwestern wbb

Sports awards are a wonderful source of the barroom argument.  Bird or Magic?  Trout or Cabrera?  Joe Jackson in the Hall of Fame?

They are also an endless font of the Hot Take.  Karl Malone once won an MVP in a league that included Michael Jordan.  Nobody on earth ever, for one moment, thought Karl Malone was better or more “valuable” than Jordan, and in the face of apparent mass hallucination the brain struggles to find reason.  And there is one:  the people who vote on these things (AKA “sportswriters”) are a) dumb and b) always looking for an Angle.  “You think MJ is great?  So what - everybody thinks that.  Let me show you Karl Malone. Or Charles Barkley.”

Sportswriters are not only dumb, they’re also easily bored.  Let’s face it, it’s boring to read and write yet another MJ hagiography, and it’s presumably boring to write his name at the top of your ballot for the ninth consecutive time.  Well, unless you’re Mike Wilbon - I think Wilbon is still voting for MJ as MVP.  At some point you want to try to find something else to write about, particularly when the obvious thing is staring you right in the face.

There’s also something of a Shiny Object syndrome in sportswriting.  Where’s the fun in writing about Duke, when Florida Gulf Coast or Loyola Chicago are so new and weird?  Far, FAR too much has been written about Mike Krzysewski (and screw you, I’m not spellchecking that bastard) already; this has been the case for decades.  Of course you’d want to write about that guy that quit being a stockbroker to let a bunch of guys run around willy-nilly and dunk all over the place.  Fun, huh?

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I’ve written at some length about a couple of the ladies on this year’s basketball team.  Ace has as well.  We both love Maddie Nolan, for example.  And I was all set to write a couple of florid paragraphs about this season’s Shiny Object, Nebraska transfer Leigha Brown…then I realized that what I should be writing about, today and every day, is Naz Hillmon.

The difficulty is similar to the “problem” of writing about Michael Jordan. I mean, really - what else is there to say?  Anyone who has watched more than about two minutes of this team already knows about Naz Hillmon.  She’s rarely the tallest player on the court, but she’s relentless.  She gets great post position, where she then uses her backside to make space for the entry pass and get clean shots off.  She’s a tremendous rebounder, particularly on the offensive end.  She absolutely never takes a possession off, never coasts, and is probably the most vocal player on the court.  She was an obvious preseason co-POY pick this year and that was before she showed up with a vastly improved stroke from the line (from 63% to 64% to 80% this year), a few more blocks, a few more steals, and (terrifyingly) better footwork once the ball was in her hands.  As her usage has increased (25% to 26% to 31%), so has her ORtg (now up to 137).  You used to be able to run hack-a-Naz on her, but no more.

She’s probably the best player in program history (it’s basically between her and Katelynn Flaherty) and has a chance to be its first all-American, and that’s if she doesn’t improve one bit between now and graduation.  If she comes back next year with more range on her jump shot?  Yikes.

tl/dr:  She’s really good.  You should watch her.  Seriously, she’s going to be here for another year and a half. If you’re not a fan of women’s hoops, she might just change your mind.

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