Delon Wright is a name mostly heard west of the Mississippi. In fact it’s a name that might only be heard in the state of Utah.
Get to know that name because Delon Wright is the most valuable player in college basketball this season and should win National Player of the Year.
Wright, a senior point guard for Utah, is showing game-in and game-out why he’s the most valuable player in college basketball. He has the Utes ranked No. 9 in the AP poll and No. 10 in KenPom’s rankings. He’s averaging more than 31 minutes per game and is the best player at Utah since Andre Miller manned the point guard spot in the late 1990s.
He’s averaging 15 points, six rebounds and five assists per game while shooting 57 percent from the field–numbers you don’t often see from a point guard, who also happens to be the best player on his team. More importantly he’s done this so far this year without the second best player on the roster, thanks to Jordan Loveridge’s injuries.
Heading into this season John Pudner from ValueAddBasketball.com says this shouldn’t be a surprise. Last season he finished No. 2 to Shabazz Napier in Pudner’s value ratings when Wright shot 62 percent from inside the three-point line, finished in the top 1 percent of steals on KenPom’s rankings and played 91.7 percent of his teams minutes.
Pudner bases his calculations on the number of points a team would lose if a certain player couldn’t play and the team had to use his backup. Heading into the regular season, Wright had a score of 13.17 points, which already would have cost Utah three wins this year.
Expect numbers for Wright to continue to improve has they are somewhat down due to recent blowouts where the senior racked up two double-doubles but never had to play more than 30 minutes or shoot more than 12 times in a game. To open Pac-12 play, Wright and the Utes blew out the two Los Angeles schools as he finished with just 16 field goal attempts but had 15 assists.
Wright is embracing his role as facilitator, which has shown valuable to the team thanks to his willingness to improve the talent around him. Look at freshman Jakob Poeltl, a player who wasn’t expected to do much this season but is nearly averaging a double-double thanks to the play of Wright.
His ability to penetrate the lane and draw defenders is leaving the 7’0” Poeltl open underneath the basket, allowing him to shoot 65 percent from the field and scoring a shade less than 10 points per game.
Utah starts to play its tougher part of the Pac-12 schedule with a game at Arizona lined up next Saturday and that will truly show if Wright can handle the pressure of the most valuable player in the country. It shouldn’t be a problem for him as his head coach Larry Krystkowiak said he thrives for big games after the loss against Kansas.
If Utah wins the Pac-12, the voters should do the right thing and look west for National Player of the Year. Just because he’s at Utah, doesn’t mean he deserves to be overlooked.