Zach Edey Named to Top 10 of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award List

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced their 10 players to watch for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar award that goes to the top center in college basketball. Purdue men’s basketball tweeted out the news earlier today.

Edey of course has been a dominant big man all season for Purdue. He’s a consistent scorer and rebounding sitting at 15 points and 7.5 boards per game. The big man has shown vast improvement from just one year ago with his passing ability when faced with a double team truly changing how he has to be defended.

Edey is not the only Big Ten big man on the list. Fellow big ten centers Kofi Cockburn and Hunter Dickinson also are on the list. All 10 names are below.

2022 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award Candidates*

Walker Kessler - Auburn

Adama Sanogo - Connecticut

Mark Williams - Duke

Drew Timme - Gonzaga

Kofi Cockburn - Illinois

Oscar Tshiebwe - Kentucky

Hunter Dickinson - Michigan

Armando Bacot - North Carolina

Nate Watson - Providence

Zach Edey - Purdue

*Players can play their way onto and off of the list at any point in the 2021-2022 season*

Interesting to note that asterisk which states that any player could be put on or off this list at any time. Should Edey win the award it would make four winners in a row for the Big Ten after Luka Garza won the past two seasons and Ethan Happ won in 2019.

One aspect of the decision making process is a fan vote which the website says will go live today February 4th. No indication as of yet where to cast your vote but stay tuned to our twitter and facebook pages as we will look to help Edey make the next round of cuts.