Hlas: Peter Jok’s omission makes Wooden Award seem wooden

OK, the timing of this isn't ideal given Iowa guard Peter Jok is coming off his worst game of the season.

Jok had four points in 22 minutes in the Hawkeyes' hideous 89-54 loss at Northwestern Sunday.

But everybody has a clunker sometime. Villanova's Josh Hart, the favorite to be college basketball's Player of the Year, missed 9 of 13 shots and had four turnovers to just one assist in his team's game against St. John's last Saturday.

Hart wasn't omitted from the John Wooden Award midseason Top 25 last week. Jok was.

The Wooden Award names a Player of the Year at season's end. It's more or less college basketball's Heisman Trophy. The award's website said the midseason list is the front-runners based on their performances during the first half of the 2016-17 season.

Normally, you should pay college athletics award watchlists as much attention as Facebook commenters when the subject is 'ways to improve your psychic ability.' But it seemed ludicrous Jok wouldn't be among the 25 finalists.

So I compared his numbers to the 25 anointed ones. Specifically, points, rebounds and assists per game, with the stats not including Wednesday's games. I used a point system ranking the players from first to 26th in all three categories, then totaled the points.

That isn't the measure of the best players, obviously. Those three stats don't tell you how much a player shares stats with other top players, the pace of his team's offense, or the quality of the teams he has played against.

Plus, what has he done in the last five minutes of close games? Is he a stellar defender? Does his team win?

All that said, Jok is tied with Kansas' Frank Mason III for fifth overall in my formula. He is third among the 26 players in scoring with 21.9 points per game, ninth in rebounds per game with 6.2, and 19th in assists per game with 2.4.

The top four are freshman Markelle Fultz of Washington, Hart, Alec Peters of Valparaiso and Purdue's Caleb Swanigan.

Iowa State's Monte Morris (15.9 points, 5.1 rebounds, 5.9 assists) is 12th overall. Is Jok having a better season than Morris or vice versa? How could an objective person select one above the other?

Melo Trimble and his Maryland team play at Iowa Thursday night. Trimble is in the Wooden top 25. His Terrapins have lost just twice this season. Trimble is, of course, excellent.

But he averages 17.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists, and his blocks and steals numbers are almost identical to Jok's.

Trimble and Fultz are both from Upper Marlboro, Md., with a population under 1,000.

Each of the 25 nominees is a baller, as top players were called in the 1940s. Hart, as Iowa painfully learned in the NCAA tournament last March, is fantastic. Mason is fantastic. UCLA freshman Lonzo Ball is fantastic. Morris is fantastic.

So is Jok.

Having said all this, it's nothing to get bent out of shape about. There's a lot of season left. The Wooden will go to a worthy winner. It always does.

But the next time Iowa or anyone else brags about one of its athletes being on some award's watch list, just remember it means another deserving player somewhere was omitted.

Here is a sample of the statistics (through Tuesday) of some of the nation's top players:

Peter Jok, Iowa

: 21.9 points per game, 6.2 rebounds, 2.4 assists

Monte Morris, Iowa State:

15.9 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 5.9 apg

Markelle Fultz, Washington:

22.2 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 6.1 apg

Josh Hart, Villanova:

18.8 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 3.6 apg

Caleb Swanigan, Purdue

: 18.4 ppg, 12.5 rpg, 2.7 apg

Alec Peters, Valparaiso

: 23.9 ppg, 10.9 rpg, 2.1 apg

Frank Mason III, Kansas

: 20.3 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 5.3 apg

Lonzo Ball, UCLA:

14.6 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 8.0 apg

Johnathan Motley, Baylor

: 15.8 ppg, 9.7 rpg, 2.2 apg

Ethan Happ, Wisconsin:

12.8 ppg, 9.1 rpg, 2.8 apg

Nigel Hayes, Wisconsin:

13.6 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 3.2 apg

Malik Monk, Kentucky:

21.4 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 2.3 apg

Luke Kennard, Duke

: 20.2 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 2.5 apg