The 2015-16 Big Ten college basketball Player of the Year race was a great one between Denzel Valentine, Jarrod Uthoff and Yogi Ferrell, and we should be headed for another three-way gem with Wisconsin's Nigel Hayes, Maryland's Melo Trimble and Indiana's Thomas Bryant each battling for the title.
As we'll address in a bit more detail on the following slide, team success is one of the most important factors in conference POY projections. To be named the conference's best player while on a middle-of-the-road team takes something unbelievably special. As such, most of the Big Ten's best candidates come from its projected top teams.