College Basketball

The Best Years of Their Lives

It's usually simple enough to become player of the year in college basketball—just have a brilliant season while your team attains a level of success it couldn't have reached without you. But this year's group of candidates is so distinguished that applying those standards barely narrows the field. Who had the better all-around season, Duke center Christian Laettner or Ohio State swingman Jimmy Jackson? Laettner was merely the best player on the country's best team, the player who held the top-ranked Blue Devils together while point guard Bobby Hurley and swingman Grant Hill were sidelined with injuries. For his part, Jackson showed an unsurpassed ability to take over games down the stretch. But was either of them more responsible for his team's achievements than center Shaquille O'Neal was for LSU's or center Alonzo Mourning was for Georgetown's?

The competition is the closest in years, so close that we thought the winner should have some other dimension, something more to recommend him. That's why we turned to Harold Miner, USC's spectacular guard. A 6'5" junior, Miner has all the traditional credentials. He completed the regular season as the nation's third-leading scorer, with a 26.9-point average, and he led the Trojans, widely picked to end up no higher than fourth in the Pac-10, to a second-place conference finish and a No. 10 national ranking. What's more, he breathed life into a program that hardly had a pulse two seasons ago, and he did it with a flair that even rival crowds enjoyed. For all those reasons, Miner is the SPORTS ILLUSTRATED men's Player of the Year.

Like Miner, 5'9" senior forward Frances Savage of Miami had a season worth noting for more than the impressive statistics she accumulated. Savage worked her way back from a career-threatening knee injury that forced her to redshirt last season. She averaged 23.4 points and 10.5 rebounds to lead the sixth-ranked Hurricanes to 29 consecutive wins after a season-opening loss. Because she had a sensational season while playing with pain, Savage is our Player of the Year among the women.

Of our two winners, Miner is easily the flashier. With his well-chronicled idiosyncrasies—which include giving the ball a hug before shooting free throws and placing his nose on various teammates and objects—he seems to stop just short of being a hot dog. "I only do what comes naturally," says Miner. "I think that's why fans on the road have never really treated me badly. They can sense I'm not trying to get attention or embarrass anybody."

That's not to say Miner doesn't have a sense of mischief. Three days after he scored 29 points and had 13 rebounds in the Trojans' second victory of the season over UCLA, on Feb. 27, he walked into Pauley Pavilion for the Bruins' game against Duke clad in a USC sweatshirt—"I was rubbing it in just a little," says Miner—and was booed as he passed in front of the UCLA student section. But when Miner looked up and Hashed his car-to-ear smile, the boos turned to cheers and then into a chant of "Transfer! Transfer!" Miner is surely the first Trojan player ever to be courted by a Bruin crowd. If Miner leaves Southern Cal before his senior year, though, it will be to join the NBA, not UCLA.

Savage also had to beat out a lot of outstanding competition—most notably, Virginia guard Dawn Staley, our 1990-91 women's Player of the Year—but her comeback was too compelling to ignore. Savage had previously undergone surgery on her left ankle in 1989. That injury, however, was nothing compared with what she went through last season. In the Hurricanes' second game Savage went down with torn cartilage in her left knee. When doctors operated, they discovered a hole in her thigh bone that was due to a congenital defect. "They used a laser to burn the bone so it would bleed and build up sear tissue over the hole," says Savage. "When I came back this year [the NCAA granted her an extra season of eligibility because her injury occurred so early in what should have been her senior year], I knew people were wondering if I'd be as good as I had been."

She came back better than ever. Savage finished the regular season seventh in the nation in scoring. Her best performance was in the semifinals of the Big East tournament, in which she scored 41 points against Providence. "I had no idea I'd scored 41 points," says Savage. "My way is to play as well as I can and then look back when it's over and see what I've done."

After the seasons they've had, both Miner and Savage can look back on 1991-92 with pride.

A Plea for the Little Guy