Ken Davis

The ballots are starting to arrive. Soon it will be time to vote on everything from Player of the Year, to Defensive Player of the Year, to Most Improved Player, to Coach of the Year, and all the All-American teams.

College basketball loves its awards, so there isn’t just one for Player of the Year. If you don’t win the Naismith Award, you might win the Wooden Award, or the Associated Press Player of the Year Award.

Who knows? Maybe the Poulan Weed Eater people will get in the act this year, just so they can give an award to Jacob Pullen of Kansas State. According to reports, X-rays on his hand and wrist were negative Tuesday, so give him a trophy for playing well lately — and for avoiding a serious injury during that hard fall Monday night against Texas.

Since I’m old and a veteran of the college basketball wars, I get to vote for a lot of these awards. Let me warn you. I might give you my opinion, or I might tell you whom I voted for. But don’t tell me how to vote — especially before the season is over.

Don’t tell me in November, December and early January that Kemba Walker has to be the POY. And then don’t come to me on the final Sunday in February and say Jimmer Fredette has to be the POY — and Kemba Walker might not even be a first-team All-American selection.

That’s just not right.

I’m not here to endorse Connecticut’s Walker for POY, even though I think he has had a uniquely special year. I’m not here to blame the Marquette loss on Walker’s last-minute turnover, or to breakdown the UConn offense and explain what goes wrong when everyone stands around on offense (that’s not a new trend at UConn, believe me).

Special feature NCAA tourney projections Welcome to March. Ohio State, Pittsburgh, BYU and Kansas claim the top seeds in our bracket. Where's your team?

My mission here is to put these words in stone: Don’t give up on Kemba Walker. Don’t count him out as a factor in the postseason. If you are in a big rush, go ahead, fill out your POY ballot, and vote for the sharp shooter from BYU. It seems everyone has been Jimmered.

But Walker’s talent and accomplishments can’t be discarded or forgotten. He is a first-team All-American if I’ve ever seen one.

And I’ve got him down for my Superhero of the Year award (another new award). He’s a Superhero because he has been asked to do so much and carry so much weight for his team. It was that way in October and it’s still that way now, as we embark on a wild and crazy March.

Walker has responded, game after game, without concern for the toll it might take on him. No player in college basketball has been asked to do more for his team this season. That’s a big statement. But it’s true.

“We kind of were demanding that Kemba do it by himself,” UConn associate coach George Blaney said after that overtime loss to Marquette last week.

“We kind of did stand around watching Kemba,” UConn forward Alex Oriakhi said. “But he was hot and he was scoring, so why go away from it?”

Back in July and August, I was editor of a preseason annual on the Huskies. At one point, the publisher’s office asked who should be on the cover. I just laughed. Walker was the only option. When I wrote Kemba’s biography, I focused on his 23-point performance against Missouri in 2009 West Regional final, an 82-75 UConn victory that sent the Huskies to the Final Four during his freshman season. “It’s difficult to play at that level every night,” I wrote, “but the Huskies may need Walker to come close this season.”

Slideshow   College hoops power rankings A look at the top teams in college basketball based on performance and potential. NBCSports.com

And they did.

After an ordinary opener with 18 points against Stony Brook, Walker scored 42 against Vermont. Then he went to the Maui Invitational, and wowed everyone from coast to coast and beyond with 31 against Wichita State, 30 against Michigan State and 29 against Kentucky. He returned to the mainland and hung 30 more on New Hampshire.

Suddenly it seemed everyone expected him to lead the nation in scoring and average 30 points. The only problem with that is Walker plays in the Big East, where scouting is a science, tendencies cannot be hidden, and the defensive schemes are rougher and tougher than anywhere else.

When Walker hit the game-winning shot in a 61-59 victory over Villanova at Gampel Pavilon on Jan. 17, Wildcats coach Jay Wright marveled at how UConn runs its entire offense through Walker.

“We wanted to double him but he’s so fast we couldn’t catch him,” Wright said.