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Bobby Portis has been absolutely brilliant this season. He brought stability and leadership to a program long marred by insanity-inducing inconsistency on the court and delivered the best season by a Razorback at least since Ronnie Brewer's junior campaign and possibly farther back than that.
Portis has averaged 17.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, and better than a block per game while leading the Razorbacks back to the top 25 polls, the 2-seed in the SEC Tournament and a lock for the NCAA Tournament. He has a chance to be one of the few players in Arkansas history to score 1,000 career points before the end of his sophomore season. He's sitting at 971 as we speak.
This is the first time since Corliss Williamson won it back-to-back that a Razorback has won the SEC Player of the Year award.
We should also give a shoutout to Patrick Pierson and the Arkansas communications team for their promotion of Portis and the team throughout the year. These awards and all those SportsCenter Top Ten plays don't just happen. Here's some of the work they did to promote Portis' bid for SEC Player of the Year. Players coming to Arkansas certainly don't have to worry about marketing and exposure if they play well here. UA will get their name out.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BP4MVP?src=hash">#BP4MVP</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/BPortistime">@BPortistime</a> has reached double figures in 26 straight games, including all 18 in SEC play. <a href="http://t.co/ewdkA8lAzC">pic.twitter.com/ewdkA8lAzC</a></p>— Razorback Basketball (@RazorbackMBB) <a href="https://twitter.com/RazorbackMBB/status/575103589607043072">March 10, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BP4MVP?src=hash">#BP4MVP</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/BPortistime">@BPortistime</a> is 1 of just 3 high-major players averaging at least 17.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. <a href="http://t.co/ROJXmdpIRG">pic.twitter.com/ROJXmdpIRG</a></p>— Razorback Basketball (@RazorbackMBB) <a href="https://twitter.com/RazorbackMBB/status/575057183835975682">March 9, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BP4MVP?src=hash">#BP4MVP</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/BPortistime">@BPortistime</a> finished as the SEC leader in Scoring, FG Pct. and Double-Doubles in league-only games. <a href="http://t.co/oGDtEc5bLT">pic.twitter.com/oGDtEc5bLT</a></p>— Razorback Basketball (@RazorbackMBB) <a href="https://twitter.com/RazorbackMBB/status/575023434398203904">March 9, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BP4MVP?src=hash">#BP4MVP</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/BPortistime">@BPortistime</a> finished SEC action with a 20-point game or a double-double against 12 of 13 league foes. <a href="http://t.co/6pKtFIroae">pic.twitter.com/6pKtFIroae</a></p>— Razorback Basketball (@RazorbackMBB) <a href="https://twitter.com/RazorbackMBB/status/574993177540567042">March 9, 2015</a></blockquote>
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