One of my favorite things that ESPN rolls out during college basketball season is their Player of the Year straw poll, which is conducted by Michigan beat-writer Mike Rothstein.
Essentially, what he does is reach out to the hordes of media members he knows and gets them to submit their top three, in order.
Mason Plumlee, followed by Trey Burke and then Doug McDermott. Plumlee got 30 of the 53 first place votes, while Burke got 13 and McDermott 16. Cody Zeller (2), Russ Smith (1) and Jeff Withey (1) got the rest.
(My ballot: 1. Trey Burke, 2. Mason Plumlee, 3. Doug McDermott.)
Perhaps the most interesting nugget here? Kansas freshman Ben McLemore got just a single second place vote. That’s it. That not only put him behind his teammate Jeff Withey, it tied him with Santa Clara’s Kevin Foster (huh?) and North Carolina’s James Michael McAdoo (seriously?) in regards to the number of ballots they showed up on.
Now, keep in mind that these votes were cast prior to the dominating, 33 point performance he had last night.
I wonder how much the poll would change if the vote were done today?
You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.