With the end of the college basketball regular season fast approaching, so do the accolades and awards for the game's top performers. Arizona State's Eddie House should, as expected, pick-up many of these awards as he heads off to the next level. After all of the off court incidents; being removed from the U.S. Junior Olympic Team, having three coaches in four years (Bill Frieder, Don Newman and Rob Evans), having to have his jaw wired shut in order to play and the questions surrounding the program after the point shaving incident, House has persevered into a player who will be honored with many accolades. On March 13th, the accolades arrived.

     House was named to the 13-man All American team and the Pac-10 Player of the Year by College Hoops Insider magazine. He was also selected to the John R. Wooden All-American and Player of the Year ballot. While First Team All-American and Pac-10 Player of the Year will be well deserved, Eddie House deserves to be the National Player of the Year. House deserves this very prestigious honor for more reasons than his plethora of offensive skills. It is obvious that House can score, averaging 22.9 points a game, but to really see why he deserves to the POY award we need to look beyond his PAC-10 record tying performance of 61 points versus the Cal Golden Bears. We need to look beyond his scoring 40 plus points in four games this season (school record), we need to look beyond the fact that Eddie House will leave ASU as the number one career scoring leader, we need to look beyond the fact he has been named PAC-10 Player of the Week more than any other player this year. What Eddie House also brings to the table is his desire to play on all aspects of his game other than scoring. "I let House know that he needed to improve," said Evans. "He did that (this year). "All of these improvements can plainly be seen with a quick scan of the season stat sheet." House is second on the team in rebounding, first in assists and first in steals. But what really set him apart from the other POY candidates is the enormous amount of leadership and increasing pressures, both on and off the game, he had to carry on his shoulders all season long.

     Coming into the season, it was made well known that House was going to have to carry the team, with only two other returning players and six freshmen on the roster. Evans and the other coaches have talked to House many times over the summer and fall about the leadership he was going to have to show to all of the young guys. There was much speculation among the media as well as alumni as to whether House could be a true leader. Eddie showed us all.

     There are countless examples of the great poise and leadership abilities House has to offer. After going 0-16 against Brigham Young University, House scored 46 points, with three assists and three Rebounds the next game. After the game, freshman point guard, Kyle Dodd remarked about how much he looked up to House for coming back so strong after such an off night the game before. Back in January, when the Sun Devils traveled to Southern California to play USC and UCLA, House missed the team flight out of Phoenix. He took a later flight and met the team at their hotel. Under Coach Evans rules, House had to sit out the first 10 minutes of the USC game. The Devils ended up losing that game by three in overtime. During the post game press conference, House never referred to his 10-minute absence from the game as a reason for the loss. Nor did he offer any excuses for his missing the team flight. He took full responsibility for his actions. After U of A blew out the Devils in Tempe, House took the blame upon himself saying he "sucked" that night. Although there were many opportunities for House to sit back and say 'I scored my 30, no one else could play defense,' he never yielded to this temptation.

     Being the only senior, he accepted, and often gave himself, more than his fair share of the blame. For Eddie House to have led the Sun Devils to the post season; when they were predicted to get seventh or eight in the PAC-10, and to do so with such leadership, should be culminated with the John R. Wooden National Player of the Year Award. Eddie House is most deserving!

Chris Gabel can be reached at asuwriter@earthlink.net