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Could Anthony Ireland be this year's WCC Player of the Year?

Ireland averaged 20.2 points per game last season, making him the Lions' leading scorer and the WCC's second leading scorer. Only 13 players in the nation averaged more points per game than Ireland. Of those 13, only two (Tyler Haws and Doug McDermott) played more games than Ireland.

He could be this year's player of the year, that's for sure. What about becoming LMU's all-time leading scorer? Keep reading to see what it would take to pull that off.

Ireland sits in tenth place on LMU's all-time career scoring list with 1,576 points. Can he make it to the top? He'd have to pass a trio from the run-and-gun Lions that made the Elite Eight, Hank Gathers (1st), Bo Kimble (4th) and Jeff Fryer (6th). While he's likely to pass both Fryer and Kimble, passing Gathers would be historic.
To accomplish the feat in just 30 games, which is the total of regular season games plus one WCC tournament game, he would need to average 30.5 points per game. The last time a player averaged at least that many points per game was 1991 (Kevin Bradshaw, 37.6 ppg over 28 games). Interestingly, Bradshaw also set the D-I record for single game scoring with 72 points, in a loss to LMU.
If Ireland plays in 34 games, meaning every regular season game, all WCC Tournament games plus an NCAA Tournament game, he would need to average 26.9 ppg. Since 2000, the nation's leading scorer has averaged over 26.9 ppg only 8 times. So, passing Gathers is possible but, historically speaking, unlikely.
What is likely is moving into second place.

Below is a table of the Lions' top-ten all-time point scorers (Ireland is in yellow). Next to which is the rate at which Ireland would need to score to jump those ahead of him. Ireland will finish ahead of the players listed in green if he stays at his career ppg of 15.8. Those in blue will be passed if Ireland averages 20.2 ppg, his average from this past season. All numbers in the table are rounded up and to one decimal place.