All-Big Ten honorable mention is a lack of respect for MSU's Joey Hauser
The following article is an opinion piece:
On Tuesday, the Big Ten Conference announced its 2022-2023 honors, which included the first, second, and third-team honors for the best performing players. Michigan State graduate senior forward Joey Hauser was not selected for any of these groupings and was instead recognized as a player deserving honorable mention from both the coaches and media. Bluntly, this was a poor decision at any level of review and is rather disrespectful to what Hauser accomplished this season.
While I was pleased that Michigan State senior guard Tyson Walker earned second-team honors from both the coaches and media and that junior point guard A.J. Hoggard received third-team honors from the media, Hauser's omission was rather baffling and surprised many followers of Big Ten basketball.
For reference, here's the All-Big Ten teams from the coaches and media:
COACHES
FIRST-TEAM: Terrence Shannon Jr., Illinois; Trayce Jackson-Davis, Indiana; Kris Murray, Iowa; Jalen Pickett, Penn State; Zach Edey, Purdue
SECOND-TEAM: Jahmir Young, Maryland; Hunter Dickinson, Michigan; Tyson Walker, Michigan State; Derrick Walker, Nebraska; Chase Audige, Northwestern; Boo Buie, Northwestern
THIRD-TEAM: Matthew Mayer, Illinois; Jalen Hood-Schifino, Indiana; Kobe Bufkin, Michigan; Jett Howard, Michigan; Clifford Omoruyi, Rutgers
MEDIA
FIRST-TEAM: Trayce Jackson-Davis, Indiana; Kris Murray, Iowa; Hunter Dickinson, Michigan; Boo Buie, Northwestern; Jalen Pickett, Penn State; Zach Edey, Purdue
SECOND-TEAM: Terrence Shannon Jr., Illinois; Jalen Hood-Schifino, Indiana; Jahmir Young, Maryland; Tyson Walker, Michigan State; Clifford Omoruyi, Rutgers
THIRD-TEAM: Filip Rebraca, Iowa; Matthew Mayer, Illinois; A.J. Hoggard, Michigan State; Chase Audige, Northwestern; Brice Sensabaugh, Ohio State
As Spartans Illustrated's Carter Elliott stated, Hauser finished in the top-15 in both scoring per game and rebounding per game in the Big Ten — only seven players accomplished that feat. Five of those players, Zach Edey, Trayce Jackson-Davis, Kris Murray, Jalen Pickett and Hunter Dickinson, were named first-team selections by either (or both) the coaches or media. The remaining player who did not receive all league honors —other than Hauser — was Dawson Garcia of last place Minnesota. Garcia only played 14 games in the conference slate.
Hauser was one of the most consistent players in conference play this season, his only game in which he didn't score or rebound in double-digits was at Purdue. In his third season playing for the Spartans, Hauser became an elite shooter. Hauser's 45.9% 3-point shooting was first amongst Big Ten players who attempted at least 100 3-point attempts. His "true shooting percentage," the measure of shooting efficiency that accounts for 2-point field goals, 3-point field goals and free throws, was third in the Big Ten.
There' are other non-traditional statistical individual measures (such as box plus/minus and BartTorvik.com player values) that show Hauser was worthy of all-conference honors, but a factor that was surprisingly ignored because it was so obvious was the comparable strength of schedule. Not only did Michigan State play unquestionably the most difficult schedule in the conference — not playing last place Minnesota at all and only playing the bottom-four conference teams a total of five games — but the Spartans' overall strength of schedule was the best amongst league teams.
By many measures, Michigan State's strength of overall schedule is top-10 nationally. In fact, Kenpom.com has the Spartans' adjusted strength of schedule at sixth. Hauser’s accomplishments were achieved versus better competition than any other players who weren’t also Spartans.
To be direct, I am unsure what the coherent arguments are for Michigan's Jett Howard or Ohio State's Brice Sensabaugh to get this recognition over Hauser.
Howard is a fine NBA prospect, but he was often a volume shooter who didn't make his teammates (or team, for that matter) better. Sensabaugh is a bull with the ball, but there were more than a few empty buckets for a sub .500 Ohio State team that has spiraled out of control this season. For what those players accomplished and how that correlated to their teams' success, neither approached Hauser's 2022-2023 campaign.
It's pleasing to see a player achieve a season like Joey Hauser has after his previous struggles (weighed by great expectations), but it is disappointing to not see the appropriate level of respect given to what he has accomplished. I would not be surprised if he showed during the Big Ten Tournament that he was more than deserving of All-Big Ten honors.