Late in the telecast of Iowa's 91-78 men's basketball win at Minnesota Wednesday night, play-by-play guy *** Bremer (a Minnesota broadcaster) said his pick for the Big Ten's Player of the Year was Adam Haluska.
That was after Haluska scorched the Gophers for 34 points. Which was one game after Haluska dropped in 33 points in a home win against Indiana. He now averages a league-high 22.3 points a game in Big Ten play.
The overwhelming favorite to win that award is Wisconsin senior forward Alando Tucker, who has been fantastic in guiding the Badgers to a 9-1 league mark. But with Iowa 6-4 in the conference with Haluska playing like J.J. Redick and Adam Morrison did last year for Duke and Gonzaga, respectively, voters for the award have another option to consider.
Haluska is shooting the 3-pointer (6-of-10 Wednesday) the way Chris Kingsbury and Kent McCausland did in their best years for the Hawkeyes, but he also is scoring in other ways. He had two old-fashioned 3-point plays against the Gophers. And, he had eight assists! If all eight of those were on 2-point baskets, that means Haluska was directly involved in 50 points. That, folks, is an extreme rarity in college ball.
Before this season started, I had doubts about Haluska being a leader. He seemed like a great supplementary player to Jeff Horner and Greg Brunner. But could he lead?
The answer has become a resounding yes. This isn't a gunning ball hog. This is a scorer who is also passing, rebounding, and yes, leading. The word for such a player is "valuable." As in Most Valuable Player.
Wisconsin's Tucker deserves all the hosannas he has received. By all accounts, he is as decent a guy as Haluska seems to be. Saturday, Iowa plays at Wisconsin, and maybe Tucker will do the same kind of job on the Hawkeyes that he did less than two weeks ago at Carver-Hawkeye when he scored 27 points. But I'll bet Haluska won't have the same kind of 3-for-18 shooting game he had against the Badgers.