If there’s one thing that the sports world does *not* need, it’s another awards show. Unfortunately, we’re getting one. On April 10th at 8 PM, ESPN2 will be airing a new, one-hour college basketball awards show live from Los Angeles. It will be hosted by Rece Davis, with both Jay Bilas and Jay Williams on site, and is presented in partnership with the Los Angeles Athletic Club and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Eight awards will be presented on that evening, and four of them are ones you’ve heard of – the Wooden Men’s Player of the Year, Wooden Women’s Player of the Year, Wooden Legends of Coaching Award (going to San Diego State’s Steve Fisher this year), and the Bob Cousy Award. There will also be four newly created awards being handed out – the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award, the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award, the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award, and the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award.
This is another move by college basketball to be more like college football, which has its own level of second-tier awards behind the Heisman Trophy. But with all due respect to the involved parties, do we really need another awards ceremony? They’re painfully awkward, and viewers don’t get much out of them at all. Also, I’m curious as to whether or not the four new awards introduced will just follow the All-American Team to a tee when it comes to the winners.
But hey – it’s Friday night programming in April. It’s not as if ESPN has crowded airwaves around that time anyway.
[ESPN]
