Illinois Basketball: Trent Frazier headlines Big Ten awards for Illini

The Illinois basketball team had a few players show up on the Big Ten basketball awards.

The players who made First Team All-Big Ten were Miles Bridges, James Palmer Jr., Keita Bates-Diop, Tony Carr and Carsen Edwards. The second-team was Juwan Morgan, Moritz Wagner, Jae’Sean Tate, Vincent Edwards and Ethan Happ. Third-team was Anthony Cowan Jr., Jaren Jackson Jr., Cassius Winston, Jordan Murphy and Isaac Haas.

Notably, Illinois didn’t have anyone on that list. The first player you will find is on the honorable mention list which is Leron Black. He is the first player named on this list with a few handfuls of other players. The Illini did have a player make the All-Freshman Team, though.

Trent Frazier is the leading guard on this team. He is accompanied by Bruno Fernando, Jaren Jackson Jr., Kaleb Wesson and Brad Davison. If you continue to scroll down on the lists, you will find Aaron Jordan in the section of Big Ten Sportsmanship Award. He earned this honor with a variety of other Big Ten players. All of these honors were selected by the Big Ten coaches as well.

The media voting was a little different. There was a little shuffling around from other teams but Black was still honorable mention, and Frazier moved up into the honorable mention category as well. This is a big deal to be All-Big Ten honorable mention as a true freshman. This kid should be proud of what he has accomplished this season.

I don’t have a ton of issues with this list. Illinois had a bad season and this really killed their chances of getting someone on one of the All-Big Ten teams. I think the only gripe I can have is Trent Frazier not winning the Freshman of the Year award.

I know it doesn’t matter to Frazier. He continues to fight and whatever accolades come his way he will accept. But, I think you can make a case for him winning this award over Jaren Jackson Jr.

Out of the main statistical categories – points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks – Jackson only leads Frazier in two of these areas. He had 5.8 rebounds and 3.3 blocks per game, which were more than Frazier’s 1.7 rebounds and 0 blocks per game. But, Frazier also had 12.5 points, 3 assists and 1.6 steals per game. This led Jackson who had 11.4 points, 1.2 assists and .7 steals per game.

Next: 5 takeaways from the second Illini win over Rutgers

As an Illini fan, of course, I have a bias but I think there is a legit argument to have Frazier win the Freshman of the Year award in the Big Ten. In my eyes, this is just more people doubting how good this kid could really be. And believe me, he is going to be special.