A.J. Hammons Named To Abdul-Jabbar Watch List

Caleb Swanigan now has company as a Purdue player on a watch list for a national award. Senior center A.J. Hammons is now on the watch list for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award which is given to the nation's best center, and given his talent and history he just might get it.

By mid-February, the watch list of 20 players for the 2016 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award will be narrowed down to just 10. In March, five finalists will be presented to Mr. Abdul-Jabbar and the Hall of Fame's selection committee. The winner of the 2016 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award will be presented at the ESPN College Basketball Awards presented by Wendy's from Club Nokia in Los Angeles, California, on Friday, April 8, 2016. Broadcast information will be released at a later date.

One of two Big Ten players named to the list (Indiana's Thomas Bryant), the 7-foot center led the team in scoring (11.9 PPG), rebounds (6.6 RPG), blocked shots (96) and field goal percentage (.540). He became the third player in history to lead the Big Ten in blocked shots three times (Penn State's Calvin Booth; Purdue's JaJuan Johnson) and was just the third player in Big Ten history to record 1,000 points, 600 rebounds and 250 blocks by the end of his junior year and the first to do so in 35 years (Ohio State's Herb Williams in 1978-80; Purdue's Joe Barry Carroll in 1977-79).

Hammons currently ranks 37^th on the school's career points list (1,099), 12^th on the rebounding chart (660) and third in career blocked shots (259).

Here are the remaining players on the list:

2016 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award Candidates

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