The Atlanta Tip Off Club is just mailing it in

The Atlanta Tip Off Club sponsors the Naismith Awards, given annually to the nation’s finest hoops talents who aren’t getting paid to play (that we know of).

This year’s Naismith National High School Player of the Year Award went to Jared Sullinger of Columbus (Ohio) Northland, the kid who’s been committed to Ohio State since 2007.

It’s not a bad choice at all, Sullinger’s a wide body who’ll do some damage for Thad Matta next season.  Think Lonny Baxter with a little bit more polish.

But the choice I did find to be a little head scratching was that Sullinger’s father James, who also coaches him, was tabbed as the Naismith National High School Coach of the Year.  Huh?

High school coaching becomes a whole lot easier when you have a player ranked third nationally in the Rivals 150. In fact, I don’t think it would be very difficult at all.   I can imagine most of Coach Sullinger’s time outs this season involved some sort of order to his team to throw it inside to Jared.

The rest of the Northland High team was probably picked based on the ability to pass it to Jared whenever he demanded the rock.  Any player not named Sullinger who shot the ball at all during tryouts was shown the door.

Instead of Coach of the Year, the Atlanta Tip Off Club should have given James a lifetime achievement award for passing on good genes and forcing Jared to practice hoops instead of other trivial pursuits, like eating supper or showering.

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