The Big Ten released its awards for the 2011-12 men's basketball regular season on Monday night. The awards and All-Big Ten teams were announced on Big Ten Network, and there were a few people from Michigan State and Michigan that were recognized for their great work during the season.
Let's start first with the Player of the Year award. Michigan State's Draymond Green was voted the Player of the Year by both the media and coaches. This comes as no surprise given the outstanding season Green had. He was clearly the best player in the conference, and both the media and coaches recognized him as so.
Michigan State's Tom Izzo was selected as the Coach of the Year by both the media and his fellow coaches. Many thought Indiana's Tom Crean or Michigan's John Beilein was going to win this award, but Izzo took it home after leading the Spartans to their third Big Ten title in four years.
The other major award worth mentioning is Freshman of the Year. The coaches voted for Indiana's Cody Zeller, but the media went with Michigan's Trey Burke. You really couldn't go wrong with either of them. It was an excellent year for freshman in the Big Ten, as evidenced by the season Burke had. He was consistently Michigan's best player and led the Wolverines to their first Big Ten title since 1986.
Moving on to the All-Big Ten teams, Green was a unanimous selection for the first team by both the coaches and media. Burke was selected to the second team by the coaches and media, which is a bit of a surprise. The coaches elected to put Wisconsin's Jordan Taylor on the first team over Burke and Penn State's Tim Frazier, which doesn't make a ton of sense when you compare the seasons each player had. Frazier did make the media's first team over Burke.
Michigan State's Keith Appling and Michigan's Tim Hardaway Jr. were both selected to the third team All-Big Ten by the coaches and media.
Other honors for Michigan State and Michigan players include Burke and MSU's Branden Dawson being named to the All-Freshman team by the coaches, as well as Green being selected to the coaches' All-Defensive team.
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