By: Brendan Prunty (The Star-Ledger via NJ.com) –

After being a one-man show for much of the season, the race for national player of the year in college basketball is officially that.

A race.

In the third media straw poll conducted by college basketball reporter Mike Rothstein of AnnArbor.com, Kentucky’s John Wall — the leader for the first two polls — has been overtaken by Evan Turner of Ohio State.

How far has Turner come? Well in the first poll a month ago, Turner was in third place — just five points ahead of Luke Harangody of Notre Dame. Two weeks ago, Turner moved up to second place, but was still 24 points behind the Kentucky freshman point guard.

The media straw poll — which is made up of individuals that cover college basketball across the country and vote for the various postseason player of the year awards: John Wooden Award, Naismith College Player of the Year, Oscar Robertson Trophy and the Associated Press Player of the Year — was released Wednesday morning. It comes out every two weeks.

The latest poll — of which I’m a voter — now shows a big shift in the minds of who the candidates are for player of the year.

Consider that in the first poll on January 20, Wall held an astonishing 71-point lead over the player in second place, Texas’ Damion James. His lead over Turner in third place? 82 points. (45 voters participated in the poll.)

Two weeks ago in the second poll on February 4, Wall maintained his lead but saw it shrink to just 24 points over Turner. But Wall’s lead over Syracuse’s Wesley Johnson in third place was still a healthy 68 points. (48 voters participated in the poll.)

My ballot for Poll No. 3 was as follows:
1. John Wall, Kentucky
2. Evan Turner, Ohio State
3. Scottie Reynolds, Villanova

Here are the final results for the third poll from AnnArbor.com:

Graphic courtesy of AnnArbor.com

No related posts.