2/19/2022 basketball Edit

Making the case for Caleb McConnell as Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year

Chris Nalwasky • TheKnightReport

Beat Writer

His coaches are calling for it. His teammates are calling for it. Rutgers senior guard/forward Caleb McConnell is the Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Year for the 2021-22 season.

“Caleb’s a dog. Nobody works harder than him in our program," Paul Mulcahy said after Rutgers knocked-off then-No. 14 Wisconsin on the road. "He’s 6-7 and guards the best player every single night. He doesn’t complain and just competes. He’s a dog. He’s the Defensive Player of the Year.”

“It feels good playing with the Defensive Player of the Year," Ron Harper Jr. added. "He’s always going to have your back. He’s always going to fight for you. He’s going to get the loose balls, rebounds, and play his tail off on the defensive end. Caleb is one of the main guys. He tells us no matter what happens on the offensive end, you have to play defensive and get stops. He had six steals today. He’s so underappreciated. He comes up big in key spots. He’s a great defender and great teammate.”

“I’ve been saying he’s going to win Defensive Player of the Year and he’s had 14 steals in three games against terrific teams,” head coach Steve Pikiell said.

During Rutgers' ongoing four-game winning streak against ranked opponents (Michigan State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Illinois) as an unranked team itself which has never been done before in NCAA history, McConnell has taken his game to another level.

You now see what a healthy McConnell can do.

McConnell has recorded 18 steals in this stretch and leads the Big Ten overall and just in league action with 2.4 steals per game, which is 10th nationally. He has 60 steals total, which puts him with the seventh most as well.

Per 40 minutes, McConnell averages 3.4 steals (13th) and his steal percentage of 5.2% is sixth. The Jacksonville, Fla. native also has 10 blocks thus far and counting, the most in his career.

Analytically, McConnell's Defensive Win Share rate, which is an estimate of the number of wins contributed by a player due to his defense, is 1.7, and his Defensive Box Plus/Minus, which is a box score estimate of the defensive points per 100 possessions a player contributed above a league-average player, translated to an average team is at 5.5.

Compare that to two other prime candidates for the DPOY award this year, Indiana's Trayce Jackson-Davis and Illinois' Trent Frazier, and McConnell is better.

Sure, Jackson-Davis has has 64 blocks, but that's the position his plays on the interior. Jackson-Davis's DBPM is 4.1 while Frazier's is 3.1. Frazier's DWS is also lower at 1.2.

Last season, Maryland's Darryl Morsell, who is now at Marquette, won the DPOY award recording only 31 steals, 17 blocks, and 90 rebounds. McConnell has 125 boards and still has a chance to match Morsell in blocks. McConnell also has a better DWS (1.1) and DBPM than the latter did a year ago (1.8). Former Scarlet Knight Myles Johnson should have easily beat out Morsell last season, by the way, as he had 68 blocks, 32 steals, a DBPM of 5.7, and a DWS of 1.7

McConnell is tasked with guarding the best player on every opposing team in every game. He studies their skillset and tendencies and uses his length, grit, toughness, and versatility to guard the 1-4, routinely making them score plenty less than what they average.

He relishes the challenge. He gets his assignment from the coaches and shuts them down.

"Caleb gets six steals and holds arguable the best-scorer in the country to 11 points," Pikiell said after the win over Wisconsin. “Tonight he had a real task and he wanted it. Johnny Davis is an elite scorer who had 37 points at Purdue. Caleb’s a good player and you see how important he is. He does a lot of things that don’t show up in the box score, but the fact that he always wants the best player on the other team is special."

“He embraces the challenge," Pikiell added after the OSU game. "He blocks shots and is a huge part of what we do."

"Caleb was flying around," Pikiell said after Rutgers beat Michigan State. "He started on Max Christie, did a really good job, then we moved him onto Gabe Brown at the end who was playing really good basketball and he did what he was supposed to do."

"Caleb, I don't know, it seemed like he had 100 steals," Pikiell said Wednesday. "He just continues to take on that role of being a great defender."

Rutgers was down by eight points at home against Ohio State a week ago with 3:48 to go. The Buckeyes didn't score another bucket. McConnell sprinted the entire court to block a breakaway layup similar to LeBron James in the NBA Finals in 2016 with 2:29 to go. The Scarlet Knights ended the game on a 10-0 run.

"This was probably my biggest block in the biggest game," McConnell told TKR. "Like I said, it came down to getting stops and that block has to go down as my best block. It ended up giving us momentum and it provided a spark.

“I just wanted to make a play. He went up and I just timed it perfectly. I just jumped and got it. "He probably didn’t think I was going to get up and block it. I think he thought he had a free lane and free run to the rim. I just wanted to win. That’s what I do. I come up with plays like that.”

Against Illinois, the Illini were down by six points with the ball early in the second half. McConnell stole a pass and took it back the other way for a layup. The ignited a 12-1 run that put Rutgers ahead by 19 points. The Scarlet Knights then led by as many as 23.

Rutgers never gets true respect from the Big Ten and the voters, but McConnell is truly deserves the Defensive Player of the Year award.

"I think he's the best defender in the league. I've said that before," Pikiell said. "He had a goal this summer. That was his goal. He came back with it, and was capable of doing that and he's worked really hard. He takes on challenges. Caleb is so active. He just does so many things, he’s 6’7", and he's got great length. He anticipates, but he likes the challenges of, you know, playing the best players and that's awesome for a coach.

"That's the difference between winning or losing, he does all those things. That’s why we're winning and they're all playing together and they have each other's backs on the defensive end, and Caleb is the guy that leads us."