College Hoops Video

John Wall was named the NCAA College Basketball Player of the Year by the Sporting News. Many fans had debated if he or teammate DeMarcus Cousins would win the award, but Wall ultimately won out. The other members of the first team announced by The Sporting News were Derrick Favors of Georgia Tech, Derrick Williams of Arizona, Xavier Henry of Kansas, and DeMarcus Cousins. Second team players were Elias Harris of Gonzaga, alec Burks of Colorado, C.J. McCollum of LeHigh, Kawhi Leonard of SDSU, and Hassan Whiteside of Marshall.

Of the frosh on the Sporting News first team, all but Derrick Williams are projected to be first round picks if they choose to go pro in the 2010 NBA draft.

This is the second straight year that one of Coach John Calipari’s players have won the award, with NBA sensation Tyreke Evans willing the award last year and being a first round lottery pick in the 2009 NBA draft.

The following is a guest post from Andy Charles who regularly contributes to Bet Fair.

Kentucky’s hopes of going a long way this season have been boosted by the news that point guard John Wall has been cleared to play by the NCAA.

Although Wall will have to sit out two games – only one of those a regular season outing – he will be eligible from their November 16 clash with Miami (Ohio) and gives the Wildcats a real prospect to work with.

Wall has long been considered one of the top high-school players in the country and Kentucky were desperate to get him on board for the season, coach John Calipari’s first in charge since his sterling efforts with the Memphis Tigers.

His status had been in doubt over a possible relationship with his AAU coach Brian Clifton, who is a certified agent, since any connection with him would have left his amateur status in tatters and probably meant a move to play professionally in Europe.

The freshman out of Raleigh, NC, joins a roster full of talent and including a pre-season All-American in Patrick Patterson, who averaged 17.9 points per game last season    on a team he and Jodie Meeks, now involved in the NBA Picks, dominated.

But in Wall the Wildcats have a far better (and less greedy) ball handler than Meeks and he could rival many of the recent star point guards in college, with Calipari already saying he was more advanced at this stage than either Derrick Rose or Tyreke Evans – high praise indeed.

Wall and Patterson’s talent mean it is imperative that Kentucky does not match last season’s failure to even make the NCAA Tournament in March – indeed failure to make the Elite Eight would be a disappointment given the resources at hand.

And Calipari will be aware that in both of the last two seasons, the Wildcats have suffered early shock defeats (2007 to Gardner-Webb and last year to Virginia Military) which put them behind the eight-ball before things had really gotten started.

As for pre-season top five basketball picks, there is no room for that kind of error, and Wall will have to get up to speed quickly with early December games against North Carolina and Connecticut on the slate and a tough SEC season to look forward to as well.

I, for one, can’t wait for the games to start!