The dust has settled on the 2008-09 college basketball season, but that doesn’t mean we are through handing out hardware. Last week we announced the second annual NaismithLives.com All-American Team and today we’re announcing our inaugural college basketball awards…

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Blake Griffin (Oklahoma)
The numbers – 21.9 ppg, 14.3 rpg, and 63.5% field goal shooting – speak for themselves, but it was Blake Griffin’s utter dominance that established him as the 2008-09 NaismithLives.com Player of the Year. The Sooner sophomore was the best player in the nation from start to finish and rebounded from a late-season concussion to average 28.5 points and 15.0 rebounds in the NCAA Tournament. There simply wasn’t a more physically talented or relentless competitor in the college game.

FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: Tyreke Evans (Memphis)
After the first five games of his collegiate career, Tyreke Evans was averaging 14.6 points a game on 38.5% shooting from the field. But, in a great display of resiliency and self-improvement, he averaged 17.5 points a game, while shooting 46.6% over the team’s final 32 games. In the process, Evans became the premier player on one of the best teams in the country. Washington’s Isaiah Thomas and Willie Warren of Oklahoma were the only other first-year standouts to have similar impacts on nationally-ranked squads, but neither one displayed the consistency Evans exhibited throughout the regular season and in the NCAA Tournament, where he scored a career-high 33 points in a regional semi-final loss to Missouri. For this reason, Evans was the obvious choice for the 2008-09 NaismithLives.com Freshman of the Year.

COACH OF THE YEAR: Bill Self (Kansas)
After losing their entire starting lineup and seven of their top nine scorers from the 2007-08 National Championship team, Kansas could’ve faded into obscurity this season. Instead they finished 27-8 and won the Big 12 regular season title, and Jayhawks coach Bill Self should be given all the credit. Crafting the offense and defense around the strengths of his best returning players – guard Sherron Collins and center Cole Aldrich – Self always seemed to bring out the worst in his opponents. There is no truer testament to great coaching and that is why he is the 2008-09 NaismithLives.com Coach of the Year.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Hasheem Thabeet (Connecticut)
Hasheem Thabeet blocked a lot of shots this season (ranking second nationally with 4.2 per game), but even more important was the psychological effect his mere presence had on his opponents. Every team the Huskies faced had to game plan around the 7-foot-3 center from Tanzania. Offenses were stretched outside of the lane and shots in the paint were either altered or not taken at all. Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun has called Thabeet “one of the most dominant defensive players in the history of college basketball.” We’re calling him the 2008-09 NaismithLives.com Defensive Player of the Year.

MID-MAJOR PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Stephen Curry (Davidson)
Stephen Curry’s performance throughout the entire season was on par with any player at any level. Not only is Curry the 2008-09 NaismithLives.com Mid-Major Player of the Year, but from this point forward the award should probably be named in his honor. He led the nation in scoring at 28.6 points a game, yet also had eight games with at least eight assists. His phenomenal list of accomplishments against both mid- and high-major opposition was even more impressive considering the various defensive schemes he encountered during every single one of Davidson’s games.