Jimmer has the trophies; Kemba has a game to play

HOUSTON -- The parade of awards began early here this week for Jimmer Fredette, who better have arrived with an extra suitcase. If the Timmy Chan's restaurant near Reliant Stadium was handing out Player of the Year honors in college basketball, my guess is the Brigham Young senior would have been there to smile, say a few words of thanks, hoist another plaque and enjoy some chicken and rice.

Jimmer has been busy at the Final Four.

Kemba, too.

First names. That's the key, the sign of supreme recognition, when with one word you can identify a player whose success is rivaled by few.

UConn has had its share.

Ray (Allen). Caron (Butler). Rip (Hamilton). Ben (Gordon). Mek (Okafor).

"He's just Kemba now," coach Jim Calhoun said of his junior guard, Kemba Walker. "It's a great status to have."

For five months, opinions varied on Fredette and Walker, on which deserved more the title of America's most valuable player, on which had done more for his team, on which meant more to his program's journey this season.

Jimmer won all the awards.

Kemba is still playing.

You decide which is more important.

Walker is in the season's final game, leading UConn into tonight's national championship against Butler, where for the second straight year the same small school from the same small Horizon League will try to defeat a major program from a major conference and claim its sport's ultimate prize.

Butler is respectful of Walker and yet not in awe of the kid who scored 130 points in five Big East Tournament games over five days, whose father calls his son's facial hair the "Jesus beard," who has always been undersized and often viewed undisciplined.

"He is good," Butler coach Brad Stevens said. "But we have played teams that have singular stars and Connecticut isn't one. This is a team with a lot of good players, a couple pros around one for-sure pro."

Walker averages 23.9 points and nearly six assists and yet wasn't a unanimous first-team All-American pick by the Associated Press or in the Big East. His team finished ninth in conference and there was a stretch where as his points mounted, so too did the notion he didn't involve teammates nearly enough.

That if the choice was between forcing a shot against multiple defenders at the end of a game or passing to an open teammate, Walker might as well have yelled, "Trying one!" as the ball took flight time and again.

It doesn't seem so straightforward now.

The Huskies start three freshmen and a sophomore alongside Walker. Their babies have grown into toddlers and then teenagers and now men during the season, all the while following the kid who grew up running others off concrete courts in the Bronx.

It was different for Fredette, who had another senior (Jackson Emery) to play off of all year.

"You know, our (younger) guys listen," Walker said. "They showed up at practice every day ready to go hard. They came with their ears wide open, ready to learn new things. (Calhoun) gave me the chance to lead them, to voice my opinion. That's one reason we have been so successful."

He was a break dancer before he was a baller. As a child, Walker performed outside a local laundromat, gyrating to Jamaican tunes where he would roll his body in wavelike motions and thrust his arms in karate chops.

Now, he slithers in and out of defenses, a penetrating nightmare for opponents. He worked tirelessly last summer on adding a mid-range game. He's the best player in college off the bounce. Yep. Better than Jimmer.

"We had just finished breakfast (Saturday) morning as a team and I look up and Kemba is walking out and six guys are following him," Calhoun said. "It just so happened they left that way. But I thought, 'That's kind of who we are and what we are in many, many ways.' As a coach, you need an extension.

"When you have a great one like Kemba, you recognize it. I certainly do."

It was late Sunday evening here when the Naismith Player of the Year was announced.

The winner: Jimmer.

Somewhere tucked into a hotel room, probably watching film of a small school from the small Horizon League and preparing for the biggest game of his life, was another finalist.

His name: Kemba.

You decide who had the more enjoyable time.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday and Thursday on "Monsters of the Midday," Fox Sports Radio 920 AM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.