Vince Edwards Named to Irving Award Watch List

Last season Purdue had three players named to the individual position award watch lists in Vince Edwards, Caleb Swanigan, and Isaac Haas. This year it has at least one again as Edwards was named to the Julius Award Watch List yet again:

A national committee comprised of top college basketball personnel determined the watch list of 20 candidates, given to the nation's top small forward. This list will be narrowed down to 10 in mid-February and then five finalists will be selected in March that will be presented to Julius Erving and the selection committee. The winner of this award will be presented at the third annual ESPN College Basketball Awards Show live from The Novo in Los Angeles, California, on Friday, April 6.

This marks the fourth year for the award, won by Arizona's Stanley Johnson in 2015, Michigan State's Denzel Valentine in 2016 and Villanova’s Josh Hart in 2017.

Edwards, a 6-foot-8, 225-pound forward from Middletown, Ohio, was a third-team All-Big Ten honoree a year ago and is Purdue’s leading returning scorer in Big Ten play at 12.7 points per game. He is the only active player in America with 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 300 assists. He is coming off a sensational summer, where he ranked third among all players at the World University Games in scoring while finishing eighth in field goal percentage.

Edwards needs 373 points, 180 rebounds and 98 assists to become the first Purdue player in school history, and just the third Big Ten player since 1992-93, with 1,500 points, 700 rebounds and 400 assists in a career.

Unfortunately, I don’t trust this body one bit because it failed to award the Karl Malone Award to Caleb Swanigan last season when he was by far the nation’s best power forward.

The Kareem Abdul-Jabaar Award given to the nation’s best center will name its watch list on Friday and it will very likely have Haas for the second straight season.

Here is the complete list with players Purdue face in bold:

Rawle Atkins - Arizona

Kelan Martin - Butler

Jacob Evans - Cincinnati

Gary Trent Jr. - Duke

Zach Norvell Jr. - Gonzaga

Kevin Knox - Kentucky

Deng Adel - Lousiville

Justin Jackson - Maryland

Bruce Brown Jr. - Miami

Miles Bridges - Michigan St.

Michael Porter Jr. - Missouri

Tyler Hall - Montana St.

Jeffrey Carroll - Oklahoma St.

Troy Brown Jr. - Oregon

Vincent Edwards - Purdue

De'Monte Buckingham - Richmond

DJ Hogg - Texas A&M

Kris Wilkes - UCLA

Mikal Bridges - Villanova

Markis McDuffie - Wichita St.

Trevon Bluiett - Xavier