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Purdue has a long history with the new college basketball individual position awards. Several players have been named finalists through the basketball Hall of Fame in recent seasons, and Carsen Edwards even took home the 2018 Jerry West Award as the nation’s best shooting guard. This year we have another player with a shot at one with Trevion Williams being nominated as one of 10 finalists for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award given to the nation’s best center:
Kofi Cockburn - Illinois
Luka Garza - Iowa
Hunter Dickinson - Michigan
Liam Robbins - Minnesota
Nate Watson - Providence
Trevion Williams - Purdue
Evan Mobley - USC
Neemias Queta - Utah State
Derek Culver - West Virginia
Charles Bassey - Western Kentucky
Just looking at this list it is nuts to see how tough the Big Ten is with five players in the league on it. Trevion is one of the best bigs in the country and he may not even make First or Second Team all-Big Ten. Williams is averaging a team-best 15.3 points and 9.6 rebounds. He is currently ninth in the conference in scoring and second in rebounding, only behind Cockburn.
I would say Garza is likely the favorite here, but it is still good to see Tre recognized for his excellent season.