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March Madness Most Outstanding Player Award
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College basketball legends are made in March.
Don’t believe it?
Check out the list of players who have been named Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament. Some of the most revered names in the game took their first steps on the road to the Hall of Fame with a championship performance at the Final Four.
Jerry West. Alcindor, Walton and Magic. Worthy, Laettner, Carmelo.
They’re the best players of their generation.
And yet, you never know when an unheralded role player will step up and have his One Shining Moment on the biggest national stage.
That’s the beauty of March Madness.
Men’s Final Four MOP Winners
The NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player is exactly what it says it is: The best player at the Final Four. Ohio State’s Jimmy Hull was the first winner in 1939, even though his team lost to Oregon in the final. As mentioned, some of the greatest players in the history of the game have won it since.
Although it’s possible for a player to be named MOP more than once, it hasn’t been done in half a century because of changes that have made repeat champions rare and star players who stay longer than a season or 2 even rarer. UCLA’s Bill Walton was the last to do it in 1972 and ’73. Five players have been MOP more than once. Ohio State’s Jerry Lucas (60-61), Kentucky’s Alex Groza (48-49) and Oklahoma A&M’s Bob Kurland (45-46) also won twice.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was known as Lew Alcindor at the time, earned the honor 3 straight years from 1967-69 during the height of UCLA’s dynasty.
Which games are considered in the voting for MOP?
Most Outstanding Player is chosen based on his performance in the Final Four. Although the winner of the award usually comes from the championship team, that’s not a requirement. Nine times since the Tournament began in 1939, the MOP has played for a team that lost in the championship game. On 3 other occasions, the MOP came from a team that lost in the semifinals and played in the now-defunct national 3rd-place consolation game.
The practice of picking non-championship MOPs was a more frequent occurrence during the 1950s and ’60s when it happened 8 times in an 11-year stretch with Kansas’ Wilt Chamberlain, Seattle’s Elgin Baylor, West Virginia’s Jerry West, Ohio State’s Jerry Lucas and Duke’s Art Heyman coming from runners-up and Temple’s Hal Lear, Princeton’s Bill Bradley and Utah’s Jerry Chambers from consolation game participants from 1956-66. The last player from a losing team to be named MOP is Houston’s Akeem Olajuwon (now Hakeem) in 1983.
Who votes on MOP?
Credentialed members of the media covering the Final Four vote for the all-tournament team and the Most Outstanding Player award. Ballots are distributed digitally along press row early in the second half of the championship game and are to be submitted by the final TV timeout at the under-4-minute mark. The votes are tabulated by members of the NCAA staff and announced after the game.
When is the MOP awarded?
The Most Outstanding Player award is presented on the podium during the championship trophy celebration immediately following the final game.
Has any MOP had his award revoked?
Even though Villanova lost to UCLA in the final, Howard Porter was selected as the Most Outstanding Player in 1971 after averaging 23.5 points and 13 rebounds while playing every minute of both Final Four games (including 2 overtimes in a semifinal win against Western Kentucky). But because it was found that Porter had signed with an agent and his team was subsequently forced to vacate its entire season, both his award and the Wildcats’ participation in the NCAA Tournament have been stricken from the official record book. Interestingly, Louisville’s Luke Hancock was allowed to keep the MOP award he won in 2013 even though the Cardinals’ national championship was also vacated.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
