Throughout the week the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has released lists of 20 candidate for each of its individual awards, including the Bob Cousy Award which is given to the nation’s top point guard. Friday morning the watch list for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, which is given to the top center in college basketball, were revealed.
Five freshmen made the cut, including Kentucky’s Skal Labissiere and Kansas’ Cheick Diallo. Joining those two are Indiana’s Thomas Bryant, Maryland’s Diamond Stone and UNLV’s Stephen Zimmerman. Last year’s winner was Wisconsin’s Frank Kaminsky, and like him the other four finalists (Arkansas’ Bobby Portis, Duke’s Jahlil Okafor, Kentucky’s Willie Cauley-Stein and Syracuse’s Rakeem Christmas) are now in the NBA.
Below is the full list of preseason candidates for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award.
Kaleb Tarczewski, Arizona
Mamadou Ndiaye, UC Irvine
Josh Scott, Colorado
Egidijus Mockevicius, Evansville
Przemek Karnowski, Gonzaga
Thomas Bryant, Indiana
Jameel McKay, Iowa State
Cheick Diallo, Kansas
Skal Labissiere, Kentucky
Diamond Stone, Maryland
Stephen Zimmerman, UNLV
Kennedy Meeks, North Carolina
Zach Auguste, Notre Dame
AJ Hammons, Purdue
Jakob Poeltl, Utah
Damian Jones, Vanderbilt
Daniel Ochefu, Villanova
Josh Hawkinson, Washington State
Joel Bolomboy, Weber State
Devin Williams, West Virginia