How about we tweak that question a smidge: Is Ben Simmons one of this season’s top five best players?
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See the difference there?
Simmons, an extraordinary basketball talent and likely the No. 1 player to be chosen in the 2016 NBA Draft, has not guaranteed himself first-team All-American status. That is an altogether separate deal; four times in the past five seasons the No. 1 pick was not a first-team choice, and Simmons could very well continue that trend.
Some of this is a matter of circumstance. Although no great teams have emerged from this season, an unusually high number of consistently impressive players have.
Some is a matter of performance. Simmons is averaging 19.4 points, 11.9 rebounds and 5 assists, but he’s also turning over the ball 3.1 times per game, fouling more than his team can afford and shooting sporadically from the foul line.
Simmons made such an immediate impact on the game by stacking stats in all the more desirable categories that his stature as an All-American was soon considered one of those self-evident truths. But the choices have grown more complicated and numerous as the season has progressed, and players such as Tyler Ulis of Kentucky, Jarrod Uthoff of Iowa and Malcolm Brogdon of Virginia have surged through February.
And, perhaps most pertinent, the LSU Tigers (16-11) have sagged toward irrelevance. Simmons has not been able to rescue them. On occasion, he’s been more a part of the problem than the solution.
As the Tigers prepared for a crucial road game Saturday at Tennessee — as it turns out, a victory would have put them in a first-place tie atop the Southeastern Conference standings — Simmons got himself benched for what coach Johnny Jones called “academic stuff.” Simmons sat out less than five minutes and was credited with playing 36, so this was far from the most devastating error it could have been. But Simmons’ performance wasn’t inspirational, either.
More bothersome were the eight turnovers he committed and the four missed free throws. He has committed three or more turnovers in eight of the team’s 11 losses. The Tigers are 3-8 against major opponents when Simmons hits that mark; they are 2-6 against major opponents when he commits four or more personals.
Simmons shoots 61.7 percent from the foul line in LSU’s losses, including a combined 13-of-26 in losses to Alabama and Tennessee last week.
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Simmons, in his defense, is the singular reason LSU is a factor in the SEC regular season title race and for an NCAA tournament bid. The Tigers tend to be a bit disconnected at the offensive end, too often taking a “my-turn” approach to scoring opportunities. They also rank 136th in the nation on defense according to KenPom.com, and it shows.
But it is also true that players rarely become first-team All-Americans on teams that can’t find their way into an NCAA tournament large enough to hold more than 60 teams. It’s only happened twice in the past 20 years: when Stephen Curry averaged 28.6 points in 2009 for Davidson, and when Troy Murphy averaged 22.7 points and 10.3 rebounds for a 2000 Notre Dame team that went 22-15.
So, historically, Simmons might have a 2 percent chance of being a first-team All-American. Of course, that’s if he’s unable to stir the Tigers from their current malaise and carry them either to a rousing finish in the final four regular-season games (at Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, at Kentucky) or to an SEC tournament title.
If Simmons is one of the five best college basketball players this season, he ought to at least give that a good go.
