COLUMN: Keene belongs in National Player of the Year discussion

It is not often I’m left speechless.

Growing up as a huge sport fan, I’ve just about seen it all — or so I thought.

But then on Jan. 21, I watched from the sidelines as Marcus Keene proceeded to score a McGuirk-Arena-record 50 points against Miami (Oh.). The junior only had 11 points in the first half but looked like a man possessed in the second.

Keene went off for 39 points after the break and listened to the crowd chant "MVP" as he hit 3-pointer after 3-pointer. Each one seemingly farther than the last.

He couldn’t be stopped. He wouldn’t be stopped. Keene was hitting shots I don’t think most NBA players could hit.

As a sport reporter, it’s my job to tweet constant updates from the games, but during that game there came a point where I didn’t even know what to tweet anymore. I couldn’t find the words to describe what I was watching.

It was the first 50-point performance in Division I since 2013, and it was the greatest shooting performance I have ever seen in an NCAA game.

That was just a small taste of what Keene has done this season. Averaging a mind-boggling 30.2 points per game, he has already locked up the Mid-American Conference Player of the Year award.

But the Youngstown State transfer has been non-existent in the conversation for college basketball’s top individual honor — the National Player of the Year.

National writers and broadcasters have basically given that award to Villanova’s Josh Hart. Now, Hart has been outstanding this year, averaging 18.9 points per game along with 6.6 rebounds, and has the Wildcats on the verge of competing for a consecutive National Championship.

However, Keene has put together a better body of work and has done much more for his team.

Keene has 13 30-point games this season — a CMU record. He has gone over 40 points four times. He’s also averaging five assists a game without a consistent post game to work with and 4.5 rebounds, despite being only 5 feet 9 inches tall.

Hart hasn’t had a shining moment like Keene has had this season. After bringing CMU back from an 18-point deficit against arch-rival Western Michigan Friday night, Keene hit a fadeaway 3-pointer with four seconds left to complete the comeback.

Everyone in the building knew what he was going to do, but the Broncos still couldn’t stop him. It was the top play on SportsCenter that night and furthered the legend of Keene and his historic season.

The Chippewas (15-8, 5-5 MAC) were predicted to finish in last place in the West Division this year and looked deserving of that prediction when they started 0-3 in conference play. But now Keene has his team one game out of first place.

If Keene can help CMU win the MAC Tournament and earn its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2003, he deserves the award for pulling off the seemingly impossible.

If Keene can keep up his current scoring pace for the final eight regular season games, he would be the first Division I player in 20 years to average 30 points for an entire season.

Winners of the NPOY award in that span like Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis and J.J. Reddick all went on to have terrific NBA careers, but none of them reached that feat in college.

I may have been left speechless this season, but rest assured I won’t be at a loss for words if the NCAA asks for my opinion on who is the top player in the country.  

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