It's been an excellent couple of weeks for Runnin' Utes center Jakob Poeltl. Not only has he been great on the floor helping to lead the Utes to 6 straight Pac-12 wins, the most in program history, but he's having a great stretch off the floor as well. Last week he was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week for the 4th time this season, this week he's been named a finalist for the Oscar Robertson Trophy. He's also in the running for the Wooden Award, the Abdul-Jabar Award, and many other "player of the year" honors.
Here's the official press release:
ST. LOUIS – Utah sophomore Jakob Poeltl has been named a finalist for the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) Oscar Robertson Trophy as the men’s national player of the year, the USBWA announced on Monday.
Along with Poeltl, the finalists’ list includes 11 players for the men’s player of the year award; Grayson Allen (Duke), Malcolm Brogdon (Virginia), Kris Dunn (Providence), Buddy Hield (Oklahoma), Brice Johnson (North Carolina), Georges Niang (Iowa State), Ben Simmons (LSU), Tyler Ulis (Kentucky), Jarrod Uthoff (Iowa) and Denzel Valentine (Michigan State).
Poeltl, who is also up for the Naismith, Wooden and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar awards, will head into Saturday’s regular-season finale against Colorado averaging 17.6 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. He ranks first in the Pac-12 and fourth in nation with a .667 field goal shooting percentage, and ranks among the top 35 players in the nation in both total field goals made (196, 30th) and total rebounds (269, 31st).
Voting for the awards is conducted by members of the USBWA. The USBWA is comprised of over 900 sports journalists covering college basketball for newspapers, magazines and websites.
The USBWA player of the year award will be presented on April 11 at the College Basketball Awards gala and dinner at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
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