When 6-9 senior forward Rob Kurz won the Notre Dame Monogram Club Most Valuable Player award, that honor lost much of its' credibility and luster. It became instantly devalued. In some ways, it became a sham.

When the most dominating and indispensable member of your team, your true go-to guy, is bypassed when it comes to awards time, it smacks of a real injustice. It flat out stinks.

Nothing can justify such idiotic oversight, no matter how noble the motives of those doing the voting. And because Kurz didn't deserve MVP designation, it cheapens the award. It makes it a mockery and something to be dismissed. Right now, that award might as well be made of aluminum foil because its' worth is practically nil.

Any sane or right thinking person knows that Luke Harangody, the big bruiser with the splendid touch, should have walked off with the MVP award. There shouldn't have even been a discussion or debate. It was so clear cut. The sophomore forward, a native son of Indiana, was spectacular all season long, averaging a robust 20.4 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. His Big East numbers were even more glossy ( 23.3 pts. and 11.3 boards ). 

By comparison, Kurz's stats ( 12.5 pts. and 7.1 rebounds ) don't even sniff those of Harangody.

How good was Harangody? Well, pretty terrific if being the Big East Player of the Year and a consensus second team All-American means anything. And yet, we're suppose to believe that someone with such honors isn't even the MVP of his own team. You normally only find such fanciful reasoning in a psycho ward.

But when you get right down to it, it's easy to figure out why Kurz was tabbed the MVP of the '07-08 team. In essence, it became a lifetime achievement award. His fellow teammates, who conducting the balloting, wanted to send their two-time captain off with something to remember them by. So they ignored the obvious and deserving choice, Harangody, and handed it to Kurz. A fine leader, a gritty and consistent player but nowhere near the team's best performer.

This amounted to nothing more than a hearty thanks for services rendered. It was if the Irish were saying thank you to Kurz for all that he'd done and sent him away with the ultimate parting gift, even though not one of them felt he was really the main man. 

Sorry, but I don't find much to admire in that kind of  logic.

While their intentions may have been pure in wanting to salute Kurz's great work ethic and leadership, those who voted for him were patently dishonest. Not one of them could have truly believed that Kurz meant more to the team's success than did Harangody. So to select someone you knew wasn't the team's best was totally bogus. And those who did so were downright disingenuous. When it comes to matters such as these, you vote with your head and not your heart. It shouldn't come down to a popularity contest.

The cold truth is that without Kurz, the Domers may have been able to survive. Without Harangody, they would have been dead meat!

Another imbecilic rationale for going with Kurz might have been the presumption that Harangody still has plenty of time to win team MVP honors. That unlike Kurz, whose eligibility has expired, big Luke still has two chances to capture the award. 

But there are no givens in either sport or in life. Who knows? Anything could happen to potentially short-circuit Harangody's Irish career. Harangody could, God forbid, get hurt or suffer a catastrophic injury. Although this possibility seems remote, he could experience a slump and have a bad year. He might also elect to come out early and declare for the pros.

The point is that there are no guarantees that Luke will put together another such monstrous year. So when someone is demonstrably deserving of an award but doesn't get it because others figure he'll have additional chances to do so, that's not only blatantly unfair, it's just plain stupid. When you're deserving, you should be rewarded and how much eligibility you have remaining should be completely immaterial.

In a perfect world, Kurz would have been the ultimate sportsman by taking the following course of action. He would have expressed his heartfelt thanks to his mates for the award but then acknowledged he didn't deserve it. Next, he would have handed the MVP trophy to Harangody and all would have been right with the world. Kurz's teammates would have made their grand gesture to their departing captain and the right guy would have ended up with the award.

But this ain't a perfect world. It would be interesting to know, however, if such a magnanimous thought ever crossed Kurz's mind.

The only thing that makes this whole fiasco at all palatable is Harangody's attitude toward it. A genuinely humble and decent kid, Luke most likely delighted in the fact that Kurz was so chosen. Harangody realizes he's been duly decorated and has no problem sharing the wealth. By no means a glory hound, Harangody digs it when other teammates receive recognition. Those who know Harangody best realize he probably feels much better about Kurz winning MVP honors than he would have if it had been him who collected the hardware.

Yet, all of that obscures the real and bottom line issue. Simply put, did Rob Kurz deserve the MVP award he took home? Anyone with a sliver of honesty and integrity has to answer in the negative. Look, Kurz is a fine young man, a dedicated, talented and hard-working athlete. And in many ways, he epitomizes what a ND man should represent.

But he's no MVP. And being a great guy doesn't make him one. 

Luke Harangody will never complain about being snubbed. It's just not in his nature. But he clearly got jobbed. And those who voted for someone else, namely Kurz, should be highly embarrassed if not ashamed.