You couldn't find a better pair of players - From Courtside - Josh Howard - Dwyane Wade - college basketball

Basketball Digest, May, 2003 by Brett Ballantini

PICKING PLAYERS FOR AWARDS is never easy. But while the professional ranks are almost always filled with at least the 10 requisite players we need to fill out All-NBA squads, doing the same with collegians is getting increasingly difficult.

Not long ago, the college ranks were an embarrassment of riches: Who's better, Steve Francis, Elton Brand, or Lamar Odom? Would your rather have Grant Hill or Christian Laettner from Duke? Dikembe Mutombo and Alonzo Mourning were Georgetown teammates for three years.

But now the emperor has no uniform. With the NBA looming, the best players in the world often are either skipping college entirely or stopping in for just a year, Dajuan Wagner style. As a result, it's getting harder to fill out All-America teams, much less arrive at a top player.

Last year our selection, and the rest of the Western world's, was Jay (nee Jason) Williams of Duke. In the preseason, Williams was a tight choice over Missouri's Kareem Rush, whose star was rising fast But despite Williams having a so-so senior season, no one could close the gap. Rush was so lost in Big 12 play he had dropped entirely off our All-America team by spring. So Williams ended up backing into our Player of the Year award.

This season, two players we'd led the buzz on in 2001-02--naming both to our First Team All-America--were fighting it out to be our preseason Hayer of the Year, Arizona's Luke Walton and Marquette's Dwyane Wade. Walton nudged out Wade but battled injury for much of the season and fell off the radar. Wade, meanwhile, continued to break out as a sophomore, averaging 21.9 ppg, 6.3 rpg, and 4.1 apg in the regular season.

Wade's a dynamic player, one of dozens reminiscent of Michael Jordan but of a few who may actually learn to earn the comparison. But more than numbers, what's so wonderful about Wade is his love affair with the game.

"To me, college basketball has been great. The NBA has always been a dream of all the kids I've known that have ever played basketball," Wade says. "But you've got to respect the game and you've got to respect what the people that have played have done for the game, like George Thompson and what he did at Marquette. He's still around, and we've got to listen to the great players that have played."

So Wade's amazing skill, vigor, and great numbers for top 10 Marquette make him our Player of the Year lock, eh?

Not so fast. An even more stellar story leapt out of the Carolinas. It stars the little team that could (Wake Forest, which won the ACC ahead of stalwarts Duke and Maryland) and the big player who got a lot bigger this season (Josh Howard).

Howard is our Player of the Year, finishing a nose ahead of Wade in what grew into a very exciting race. But it wasn't Howard's out-of-nowhere 20.1 ppg and 8.0 rpg and or lead role in the feel-good Demon Deacon Cinderella story that sealed it for us.

It was Howard's leadership. Says his coach (and our 2002-03 Coach of the Year), Skip Prossen "Josh is someone who has never really relished a leadership role, but he was cognizant that he would have to step up in that category. He has been vocal and fearless, and that has had a ripple effect His greatest gift to his teammates is the courage he gives them."

This is a race that neither Wade nor Howard really wins or loses. Any player can look inward and do his best to help his team. But it takes a special player to lead his team both on the stat sheet and in the locker room. And for their efforts in both areas, Wade and Howard have earned every one of their postseason honors.