Kansas guard Ochai Agbaji was honest when asked about winning the Final Four Most Outstanding Player award Monday following KU’s 72-69 victory over North Carolina in the NCAA men’s national championship game.
“If I really had a Most Outstanding Player throughout the entire Final Four,” Agbaji said, “it would be David (McCormack).”
Many KU fans and national media members agreed with Agbaji’s sentiment.
McCormack had 15 points and 10 rebounds Monday, which included the Jayhawks’ final two field goals over the last 1:30.
And while those clutch plays helped deliver KU a title, they probably also cost McCormack when it came to winning MOP honors.
Let’s explain.
According to David Worlock, the NCAA’s director of media coordination, the MOP honor is determined by a vote of media members present at the Final Four. In the past, the NCAA has preassigned 20 writers to vote on the MOP and All-Tournament team, but because of technological advances, it opened up the ballot to all credentialed media members in New Orleans this season.
Here’s how it worked: At the beginning of the week, Final Four media members are encouraged to download a “PressPass” app that provides information such as arena maps, press conference times and interview transcript links. At 10:04 p.m. Monday, the app sent an alert — to media members that had notifications enabled — with a link for them to vote for the All-Tournament Team. In addition, an NCAA official walked around press row tables at the second half’s 12-minute media timeout to remind reporters to vote.
The app’s instructions stated this: “Voting will close with two minutes remaining in the game.”
That meant ballots were instructed to be sent to the NCAA ahead of McCormack’s two biggest plays against North Carolina.
The timing is partly an understandable logistical issue. The MOP award is presented shortly after the game ends, so NCAA officials need to tally the votes quickly to have a winner in place.
It’s a simpler process than in earlier years, though, because of computer power. Previously, when the NCAA had paper ballots, they had to be tallied by hand. This year’s voting link — through the StatBroadcast live-game statistics site — would seem to allow for instant calculation without the risk of human error.
Worlock said 25 media members voted for this year’s Most Outstanding Player, saying the final total “wasn’t much different than a normal year.” An option on the ballot gave voters the chance to choose a potential MOP from each team in case they wanted to ensure they awarded the honor to a player from the winning squad.
Though the app link instructions said voting closed with two minutes left in the game, Worlock told The Star that ballots “could be cast all the way until soon after the game concludes.”
In the end, Worlock said Agbaji received five more votes than McCormack. Worlock reported “most of the ballots, if not all, were received late in Monday’s game.”
The reason this MOP discussion is so relevant relates to McCormack’s legacy with KU.
Originally, KU basketball players would get automatic qualification for jersey retirement in the Allen Fieldhouse rafters if they were named Final Four MOP. McCormack, whose career numbers wouldn’t qualify him for that honor, appeared to have found a shortcut to receiving that KU basketball immortality.
In recent years, though, KU coach Bill Self has made clear there are no official criteria for hanging a former KU player’s jersey in the rafters. That means if Self sees fit, McCormack could receive an induction ceremony even after just missing out on MOP.
Self, for his part, indicated Monday night that McCormack had a rightful case for the Final Four honor.
“I’m glad Och got MOP, but David could’ve very easily got MOP,” Self said. “We cut the net down, and I gave the net to (David), and I said, ‘You didn’t get that trophy, but this’ll mean just as much to you moving forward.’”
The two-game numbers from the Final Four also appear to favor McCormack over Agbaji. McCormack had 25 points on 10-for-12 shooting with nine rebounds in KU’s previous game against Villanova.
Agbaji — a first-team All-American and the team’s unquestioned leader — had 21 points on 6-for-8 shooting against Villanova and 12 points on 4-for-9 field-goal accuracy against North Carolina.
This isn’t the first time there’s been an MOP controversy because ballots were requested before the championship game’s conclusion.
Some North Carolina fans in 2017 started an online petition to get senior forward Kennedy Meeks recognized with a jersey retirement after he made two big plays — a block and a steal — in the final 20 seconds of UNC’s 71-65 national championship game win against Gonzaga. Meeks also led the Tar Heels with 25 points on 11-for-13 shooting in the Tar Heels’ previous victory over the Oregon Ducks in the Final Four.
North Carolina guard Joel Berry was named MOP that season. And under UNC coach Roy Williams, Meeks never met the requirements for jersey retirement at Dean Smith Center.
The MOP and the All-Tournament Team are awarded as a collaborative effort between the NCAA and United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA).
Worlock said, at the moment, there were no plans to make further adjustments next season to the Final Four voting system.
“I don’t anticipate doing so, but we meet regularly with the USBWA,” Worlock said, “and would entertain any feedback or suggestions they might have.”