Senior Isaac Hamilton, the Pac-12’s top returning scorer, is a stark contrast to the other member of UCLA’s backcourt named to a preseason award watch list.
Senior Isaac Hamilton, the top returning scorer in the Pac-12, was a natural choice for the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award watch list announced Tuesday. The buzz about freshman Lonzo Ball is only growing after he earned the distinction as a watch list candidate for the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award.
To illustrate the depth in the UCLA backcourt, consider that Bryce Alford, who averaged seven tenths of a point less than Hamilton last season, is a certainty to be in the starting lineup when the season begins Nov. 11. As for Aaron Holiday, whose minutes are more difficult to project than the coach’s son, all he did was averaged double figures as a freshman last season and play the best on-ball defense of anybody on the roster.
These are good problems to have for Steve Alford. Of course, the national college basketball committee choosing the watch lists isn’t relieving any pressure from the embattled UCLA coach.
These are far more prestigious than college football preseason watch lists that include three times as many players at a given position. Ball and Hamilton are one of 20 members of their respective lists among 351 NCAA Division I basketball programs. The lists will be narrowed to 10 in mid-February and five in March before the award is presented at the ESPN College Basketball Awards Show in L.A. on April 7.
Hamilton was named second team All-Pac-12 after averaging 16.8 points per game last season. Ball, the reigning Naismith High School Player of the Year, was the No. 4 recruit in the country in rivals.com’s class of 2016.
2017 Jerry West Award Watch List
Allonzo Trier (Arizona)
Dusty Hannahs (Arkansas)
Nick Emery (BYU)
Jacob Evans (Cincinnati)
Charles Cooke (Dayton)
Grayson Allen (Duke)
Jordan Mathews (Gonzaga)
Malcolm Hill (Illinois)
James Blackmon Jr. (Indiana)
Peter Jok (Iowa)
Devonte’ Graham (Kansas)
Malik Monk (Kentucky)
Antonio Blakeney (LSU)
Donovan Mitchell (Louisville)
Eron Harris (Michigan State)
Elijah Brown (New Mexico)
Tyler Dorsey (Oregon)
E.C. Mathews (Rhode Island)
Shake Milton (SMU)
Isaac Hamilton (UCLA)
2017 Bob Cousy Award Watch List
Jalen Adams (Connecticut)
Maurice Watson Jr. (Creighton)
Jack Gibbs (Davidson)
Frank Jackson (Duke)
Nigel Williams-Goss (Gonzaga)
Monte Morris (Iowa State)
Frank Mason (Kansas)
De’Aaron Fox (Kentucky)
Melo Trimble (Maryland)
Joel Berry II (North Carolina)
Dennis Smith (N.C. State)
Jawun Evans (Oklahoma State)
Jordan McLaughlin (Southern California)
Lonzo Ball (UCLA)
Jalen Brunson (Villanova)
London Perrantes (Virginia)
Seth Allen (Virginia Tech)
Markelle Fultz (Washington)
Bronson Koenig (Wisconsin)
Edmund Summer (Xavier)