The Atlantic 10 asks the media to vote for its preseason all-conference awards, but doesn't trust us with the postseason ones. So they think we're good guessers, but not so good at actual evaluation.

I'm telling you this because the faux ballot you're about to see has no actual bearing on anything.

Player of the Year: Gary Forbes, UMass. He won't get it, at least I don't think so. But he leads the league in scoring. He's a top 10 rebounder on a team that has overacheived.
And who else deserves it. I would have voted for Drew Lavender, but he's struggled since getting hurt. Brian Roberts is a popular choice in conversations on this topic, but his team has sputtered down the stretch and several players including Forbes have better numbers.

Pat Calathes would be a fine choice, but has he had a better year than Forbes? I'd consider voting for Stanley Burrell (I'm writing this like my ballot matters even a little), for his defense which has been huge. But there's no chance he'll get it.

Coach of the Year: Losing to St. Joe's might have cost Sean Miller this award, but I wouldn't have picked him anyway. I don't like choosing a coach picked to finish first that does. So I'm going with Rick Majerus. Just kidding. Richmond took huge steps forward this year. Chris Mooney is my man.

Rookie of the Year: Kevin Anderson, Richmond. Nationally freshman have made a huge impact on several top 25 teams. That hasn't trickled down to the A-14 where few freshman have been difference makers.

Chris Daniels Award for Most Improved Player - Ricky Harris. Etienne Brower gets the award for most improved ankle, but Harris barely played a year ago and he's become indispensable.

Defensive Player of the Year: Burrell, Duh.

Sixth Man of the Year: Josh Duncan, Xavier. The Musketeers leading scorer doesn't start.

Disappointing team of the year: They don't actually confer this honor, but if they did, Fordham, which has been harder to watch than Sonic commercials, gets the trophy.

Greg Oden Award for a young man who looks like he's 45: Lavender.

* * *

I'm curious what UMass' margin for error for making the NCAA Tournament. I think it would certainly help to win at least one. The Minutemen might have been helped by St. Joe's winning so they'd have finished fourth. In that scenario they'd have likely played Xavier in the semifinals if they got that far. That would mean if they won one game, the worst they could do is lose to a top 10 RPI team, while not boosting another teams chances to pass them in the pecking order.

Now if UMass lost to Temple in the semifinals, would the Owls leapfrog them? I don't know.

...one day til W&M-GMU...