First things first, let us not take anything away from the impact that Aaron Wiggins has had at Maryland. Wiggins was named the Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year on Monday, and helped lead the Terps to a co-Big Ten regular season title. The sophomore combo guard finished the year averaging 10.4 points per game to go along with nearly five rebounds, and is coming off of an excellent month. The North Carolina native lead Maryland in scoring in back-to-back games against Ohio State and Minnesota during the final week of February. This argument is a reflection of how well Micah Potter played rather than taking anything away from the significant impact of Wiggins for the Terrapins.
With that being said, Micah Potter completely deserves this award. A common first thought about why the Ohio State transfer did not come away with the hardware could be games missed. This award, however, is only indicative of conference performance and Potter only missed two conference games out of the 20. Not only was he an energy-providing stretch big for this team, but he was also one of the key differences between a team that started conference play with a loss at Rutgers (this loss did not turn out to look so bad), and a team that ended the year as co-Big Ten regular season champions. Once Kobe King left the program, Potter, for matchup reasons, was inserted into the starting lineup for a total of three Big Ten games including the Badger win at Indiana. Despite those three games, the Ohio native’s main role was as a key contributor off the pine. Now let’s break it down statistically.
There are certain arguments with Potter and Wiggins that cancel each other out. They both averaged right around ten points per contest, Potter had a slight edge in the rebounding category as a big, their teams both won the same amount of conference games, and they each had games where they led their respective squads to w’s. One major separating factor, however, is how Potter and Wiggins individually got their respective numbers. For the Badger big man, efficiency was incredibly high in conference play. Potter shot an incredible 48.9% from beyond the arc, nearly 55% on all field goals, and 83% from the line. He did all of that while only playing nearly 19 minutes per game. Potter only played in three games that were not conference clashes. He did not make a three in those three games, and he averaged just under five points a game. The Mentor, Ohio product elevated his game, got his legs under him, and did damage in conference play.
Wiggins, on the flip side, got to his numbers in a much less efficient way. In conference play, the sophomore guard shot just 38% from the field and a bit under 32% from distance. His scoring average actually dropped slightly down to 10.0 points per conference game in comparison to the non-conference slate. Additionally, Wiggins played nearly eight more minutes than the Badger big man on average in conference play. In college basketball terms, Wiggins has not actually been incredibly inefficient. Once again, this is an argument about the incredible efficiency of Potter in conference play.
Had Maryland and Wisconsin’s records been significantly different, which at the beginning of February looked likely, it would have made sense to reward winning and therefore reward Wiggins. With these two teams tied at 14-6 in the conference after an eight-game Wisconsin winning streak? It’s truly hard to see how Potter did not come away with a well-deserved trophy.
