Twenty players were announced as members of the preseason watch list for the Karee Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year award.
Among the 20 are Wisconsin’s Ethan Happ, Texas A&M’s Tyler Davis, Texas’ Mohamed Bamba, St. Mary’s senior Jock Landale and Purdue’s Isaac Haas.
“I would like to thank the Basketball Hall of Fame for the honor of being the namesake of this award,” said Abdul-Jabbar, a 1995 inductee of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and six-time NBA Champion, said in a release. “The student-athletes recognized have worked tirelessly to earn their spots on this list and I look forward to seeing how their hard work will pay off this season.”
Previous winners include Przemek Karnowski (2017), Jakob Poetl (2016) and Frank Kaminsky (2015).
The group of 20 (though players not included in the preseason watch list can be later included) will be trimmed to 10 in February and five finalists in March. The winner will be announced April 6.
2018 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award Candidates
Dusan Ristic | Arizona |
Austin Wiley | Auburn |
Kingsley Okoroh | California |
Tacko Fall | Central Florida |
Marques Bolden | Duke |
John Egbunu | Florida |
Jessie Govan | Georgetown |
Ben Lammers | Georgia Tech |
Nick Richards | Kentucky |
Omer Yurtseven | NC State |
Isaac Haas | Purdue |
Jock Landale | Saint Mary’s |
Angel Delgado | Seton Hall |
Michael Humphrey | Stanford |
Vladimir Brodziansky | TCU |
Mohamed Bamba | Texas |
Tyler Davis | Texas A&M |
Thomas Welsh | UCLA |
Chimezie Metu | USC |
Ethan Happ | Wisconsin |