Second Thoughts on the All Big Ten Team

It’s hard impossible to argue that the voters shortchanged Penn State in the 2009 Big Ten Awards: Head coach Russ Rose was named Coach of the Year, Senior outside hitter Megan Hodge won Player of the Year (she also won as a Freshman), Darcy Dorton was named Freshman of the Year, and four Penn Staters — Hodge, Senior Alisha Glass, junior Blair Brown, and Junior Arielle Wilson — won First Team All-Big Ten honors. Hodge, Brown and Glass, but not Wilson, were unanimous selections. (Dorton was also a unanimous selection to the Big Ten All-Freshman team.)

Which brings us to the question: Why wasn’t Wilson a unanimous selection? Wilson, who was an AVCA Second Team All-American and First Team All Big Ten in 2008, was a three-time Big Ten Player of the Week in 2009, led the nation with a .553 hitting percentage (which would shatter the NCAA record if the season ended today), ranked third on the team with 287 kills (2.75 kills per set) and led Penn State with 1.55 blocks per set (second in the Big Ten).

Minnesota’s fine Middle Hitter, Lauren Gibbemeyer, was a unanimous selection. Nothing wrong with that, but we’re having a hard time seeing why Gibbemeyer was unanimous but Wilson was not. Below is a statistical comparison of the two:

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At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. But it does make us wonder.

Below is a complete listings of the All Big Ten honorees: