This Pac-12 Fridays miniseries on college basketball in the Conference of (real NCAA) Champions and its Midwest partners, the B1G, moves another year into the past with the 2007-08 season. The Pacific-10 Conference placed 6 teams into March Madness, while the other conference added 4 teams. Overall, half the teams from these two leagues in the tourney reached the Sweet 16, which was an impressive accomplishment, even if only one team ended up reaching the Final Four. Cookies crumble funny ways!

2008 Pac-10 PoY: Kevin Love, C, UCLA (original, confirmed)

The UCLA Bruins won the regular-season title by 3 games, and they followed it up with a conference tournament championship as well. The team’s center, Kevin Love, won the PoY vote in his only collegiate season of basketball before heading to the NBA, and he helped the Bruins reach the Final Four for the third straight season. With 11.3 Win Shares, he finished 4.6 WS ahead of the next-best player in the conference, and that just seals the deal for us to confirm this award without further discussion.

2008 B1G PoY: D.J. White, F, Indiana (original); Robbie Hummel, F, Purdue (revised)

The Wisconsin Badgers pulled off the double double with a 1-game edge over Purdue and a 2-game margin over Indiana for the regular-season championship before backing it up with a conference tourney title, too. Meanwhile, Hoosiers forward D.J. White (7.6 WS) took home the PoY honors, but he was ably backed by guard Eric Gordon (6.0) as the two Indiana teammates finished 1-2 in the conference. Meanwhile, three Badgers were in the Top 9 for the league, so where does that leave us?

With 5.9 WS, Boilermakers F Robbie Hummel was third in conference for value, and none of his teammates finished in the Top 10 with him. So, he becomes our choice for the PoY. He carried Purdue to a near title in the regular season, and Hummel didn’t have the same kind of help as other stars in the league did.