Big Ten Men’s Basketball 2023 ______ of the Year Awards

The regular season has come to an end and that means it is award season as various publications, organizations, and coaches get together to vote on who was the best at everything this past season. Here at OffTackleEmpire, a basketball blog with a weird name, we also have thoughts on who was the best this year.

Eight writers voted on player, coach, freshman, and defender of the year in addition to their all-B1G first teams. For the individual awards, writers were asked to submit their top three in order with second and third place votes being used as tiebreakers. Here are the results.

Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images

OTE’s Player of the Year Award

The winner is Purdue Boilermakers Zach Edey

Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images

OTE’s player of the year was surprisingly a unanimous decision among the writers with Zach Edey taking home the hardware. We reached out to Zach and here’s what he had to say:

Zach Edey averaged a double-double with 21.9 points and 12.8 rebounds in addition to generally discouraging teams from attempting to drive to the basket. The runner up Jackson-Davis was statistically very close with 20.5 points and 11 rebounds (not to mention more blocks and assists) and almost received every second place vote. Jalen Pickett (who would be a conference player of the year in every other conference except the SEC) averaged 18.0 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 7.0 assists making him the second 17/7/7 guy nationally in the last 30 years (if we believe Penn State twitter).

1. Purdue Boilermakers C Zach Edey (8 first place votes)
2. Indiana Hoosiers C Trayce Jackson-Davis (7 second place votes, 1 third place vote)
3. Penn State Nittany Lions PG Jalen Pickett (1 second place vote, 5 third place votes)
4. Iowa Hawkeyes PF Kris Murray (2 third place votes)

OTE’s Coach of the Year Award

The winner is Purdue Boilermakers Matt Painter

Photo by Zach Bolinger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

OTE’s Coach of the Year Award was the closest of this year’s OTE Awards with second place votes serving as the tiebreaker. Both Matt Painter and Chris Collins received three first place votes, but Painter’s 4 second place (compared to Collins’ 3) put him over the top. Both Painter and Collins appeared on all 8 ballots.

Painter led a Purdue team that lost three starters and was picked 5th by the media preseason to an outright B1G championship by three games. Collins meanwhile surprised nearly everyone, taking a Northwestern squad picked 13th by the media preseason all the way to second place in the conference and their (assumed) second NCAA tournament bid ever. Nebraska’s Fred Hoiberg received the final first place votes and most of the remaining down ballot consideration for taking a Nebraska team expected to win maybe 3 conference games and managing a 9-11 Big Ten record. Impressive stuff from all three of these coaches.

1. Purdue Boilermakers HC Matt Painter (3 first place votes, 4 second place votes, 1 third place vote)
2. Northwestern Wildcats HC Chris Collins (3 first place votes, 3 second place votes, 2 third place votes)
3. Nebraska Cornhuskers HC Fred Hoiberg (2 first place votes, 4 third place votes)
4. Indiana Hoosiers HC Mike Woodson (1 second place vote)
5. Iowa Hawkeyes HC Fran McCaffery (1 third place vote)

OTE’s Freshman of the Year Award

The winner is Indiana Hoosiers Jalen Hood-Schifino

Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images

OTE’s Freshman of the Year Award was another tightly contested decision among the writing staff. Nobody appeared on all eight ballots and consensus was hard to find. Nevertheless, future 2023 first round draft pick Jalen Hood-Schifino takes home the award after helping Indiana to a tied for 2nd place finish following the injury to Xavier Johnson and averaging 13.4 points on the year. Runner up Brice Sensabaugh outscored Hood-Schifino by over three points a game (16.5), but Ohio State’s lack of team success hurt his standing with the writers.

1. Indiana Hoosiers PG Jalen Hood-Schifino (4 first place votes, 2 second place votes, 1 third place vote)
2. Ohio State Buckeyes SF Brice Sensabaugh (3 first place votes, 4 second place votes)
3. Purdue Boilermakers PG Braden Smith (1 first place vote)
4. Michigan Wolverines SF Jett Howard (1 second place vote, 5 third place votes)
5. Wisconsin Badgers SF Connor Essegian (1 second place vote, 1 third place vote)
6. Ohio State Buckeyes PG Bruce Thornton (1 third place vote)

OTE’s Defender of the Year Award

The winner is Northwestern Wildcats Chase Audige

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images

OTE’s Defender of the Year Award is meant to award the best defender in the conference. Like the above awards, writers were asked for their top three choices with second and third place votes to be used as tiebreakers. Unlike the other awards, writers had more difficulty following instructions. Six writers participated in the defender of the year vote. One submitted just two names. Another submitted four.

What best defender means seemed to be split between two different camps. For the one side it meant best on ball defender. For others it meant best rim protector. A few voters tried to bridge the gap between these two philosophies.

Chase Audige takes home the OTE award after a season where he compiled 74 steals to lead the conference. His 2.4 steals/game was less than Caleb McConnell but McConnell played in just 25 games. Audige was a menace to opposing offenses all season long.

Big Ten block leaders Trayce Jackson-Davis (77) and Zach Edey (68) also received first place votes. Jalen Pickett rounded out the field of those receiving votes.

1. Northwestern Wildcats SG Chase Audige (4 first place votes, 1 second place vote)
2. Indiana Hoosiers C Trayce Jackson-Davis (1 first place vote, 1 second place vote, 2 third place votes)
3. Purdue Boilermakers C Zach Edey (1 first place vote)
4. Rutgers Scarlet Knights SF Caleb McConnell (2 second place votes, 3 third place votes)
5. Penn State Nittany Lions PG Jalen Pickett (1 fourth place vote - never mind that we were only taking votes of the top three)

OTE’s 1st Team All-Big Ten

Purdue Boilermakers C Zach Edey (unanimous)
Indiana Hoosiers C Trayce Jackson-Davis (unanimous)
Penn State Nittany Lions PG Jalen Pickett (unanimous)
Iowa Hawkeyes PF Kris Murray (6 votes)
Northwestern Wildcats PG Boo Buie (4 votes)

Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

Also receiving votes: Illinois Fighting Illini SF Terrence Shannon Jr. (2 votes), Michigan Wolverines C Hunter Dickinson (2 votes), Maryland Terrapins PG Jahmir Young (1 vote)

The All-Big Ten team was decided by 8 voters and three selections were unanimous. The final two spots were up for debate with support divided among five different candidates. Positional fit was not considered, just the top five players. 7 of our votes managed to select five players while the eighth person believes basketball is played with four person sides.