Michigan State Basketball: Marcus Bingham Jr. should win Big Ten DPOY

Michigan State basketball only has 10 games left and Marcus Bingham is elite defensively it’s time to consider him for defensive player of the year.

As the 2021-22 Michigan State basketball season draws closer to the end and the people start looking at the yearly award candidates, I want to take a look at the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year award. Because of how he has played so far this season, Marcus Bingham Jr. has to be at the top of the list for potential candidates.

In 19 games, Bingham has 53 blocks to his name this season, making his average just under three per game (2.8).

But blocks are not the only thing Bingham brings when it comes to his defense. When you watch the Spartans, he uses his size effectively out on the perimeter, especially when helping defend the pick and roll. He has also shown that you are never going to have an easy shot if you have to go up against him in the post. He won’t block the shot every time but it will more than likely be a highly-contested shot.

To add to that, he is also great at disrupting plays. What I mean by that is he has such long arms he does a great job at making the other bigs in the paint pass out, not allowing them to have an easy shot. Bingham averages one steal per game which, of course, isn’t a ton but when you watch him on the court, he bats passes away a lot more frequently than the numbers show.

He is also doing all of this while not playing as much as other names that are being thrown around in the college basketball world. Since Bingham tested positive for COVID, his minutes have decreased due to him having stamina issues after dealing with the virus. He used to average about 20-23 minutes but since returning from his time out he has only averaged around 14-16. He also missed a game where he could’ve added a few more blocks and steals to his resume.

So if you take a look at Bingham not even averaging 20 minutes a game and missing a whole game completely and still being one of the best rim protectors and overall defensive players in all of the college basketball, it just makes you wonder what his numbers would look like if he had never gotten COVID and was still playing 20plus minutes a game and being able to be even more of a threat than he already to opposing teams interior attack game.