Garza Named a Naismith Award Finalist
Iowa's Luka Garza keeps racking up the accolades. Iowa's News Now reports that after having been selected as The Sporting News and Basketball Times players of the year, as well as becoming a repeat winner for Big Ten Player of the Year, the big man is up for the big one.
The 6'11" center whose talent will be on display Saturday night when the #2-seed Hawkeyes tip-off against Grand Canyon in the NCAA tournament, has been selected as a finalist for the Naismith Player of the Year award, hardware that goes to the single most outstanding player in college.
Voting is underway for the prestigious award between Garza, Oklahoma State’s Cade Cunningham, Ayo Dosunmu of Illinois, and Gonzaga’s Corey Kispert.
It has been so fun to watch these Hawkeyes play this season and Garza's been a big part of it, literally and figuratively.
He now leads as Iowa's top scorer of all-time after breaking a record set 32 years ago by Roy Marble, and Iowa's News Now says he is the #8 scorer in Big Ten Conference history.
Fans can vote through March 31, with the winner being announced April 3 on CBS Sports Network's March Madness 360 show. We'll have if for you here when it's announced as well.
Here's the list of individual honors for Garza so far this season, but we're certain he'd be more excited to help his team pick up some hardware as national champions this season. We're biased, but we do too.
- Big Ten Men’s Basketball Player of the Year
- Sporting News National Player of the Year
- Basketball Times National Player of the Year
- USBWA District VI Player of the Year
- First Team All-America (NABC, Associated Press, Sporting News, USBWA)
- Wooden Award National Ballot
- Senior CLASS Award Finalist
- Naismith Trophy Finalist
- Oscar Robertson Player of the Year Trophy Finalist
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award Finalist
- Lute Olson Award Midseason Top 30