Kentucky freshman guards De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk are on the midseason watch lists for the U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s national player of the year award and freshman of the year awards.
The Kentucky backcourt duo are two of 19 midseason players on the watch list for the Oscar Robertson Trophy, given annually to the men’s national player of the year. They are the only two players from the Southeastern Conference to make the cut. Both players are also on the watch list for the Wayman Tisdale Award, which goes to the top freshman in college basketball.
UK and UCLA are the only two schools with two candidates on the Oscar Robertson Trophy watch list and the Wayman Tisdale Award watch list.
The Oscar Robertson Trophy will be presented at a news conference on March 31 at the Final Four in Phoenix. The presentation of the Wayman Tisdale Award is to be announced.
The USBWA, comprised of nearly 1,000 sports journalists covering college basketball for newspapers, magazines and websites, will select the recipients of the awards.
Monk, a freshman from Lepanto, Arkansas, is off to a historic start. Averaging 21.7 points per game, he is ranked 18th nationally in scoring, second among all freshmen and first in the Southeastern Conference. No John Calipari-coached player has ever averaged more than 21.2 points for an entire season (Dajuan Wagner at Memphis in 2001-02). He’s scored in double figures in every game this season and has 11 games of 20 points or more, including a Kentucky freshman record 47 points vs. North Carolina in December and another 34-point outburst at Ole Miss.
Monk has proven to be one of Calipari’s most dynamic scorers ever. Routinely a feature on SportsCenter’s Top 10 for his jaw-dropping dunks, he’s also proven to be one of the nation’s top 3-point shooters. He’s made 58 3-pointers through 19 games, ahead of Jamal Murray (50) at this point in the season when he went on to break the freshman record with 113 3-pointers a season ago.
Faced with the unenviable task of replacing the 2016 Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year award winner, Tyler Ulis, Fox has filled his shoes admirably and made his own mark as one of the nation’s fastest and craftiest players. Fox is currently averaging 16.2 points, 6.0 assists and 1.6 steals. His 6.0 assists per game ranks 16th in the country, fourth among all freshmen and first in the SEC, while his 2.8 assist-to-turnover ratio is first in the conference. His 114 assists are ahead of where Ulis (108) sat through the first 19 games last year when he went on to break the school’s single-season assists record.
Fox already has a team-leading four double-doubles by way of points and assists, which includes his historic triple-double against Arizona State – the second triple-double in school history and first since Chris Mills did it Dec. 27, 1988. The Houston native has 10 games of six assists or more.
Anthony Davis (2012) is the only UK player to win the Oscar Robertson Trophy. He also won the Wayman Tisdale Award that season. John Wall was the first and only other Wildcat to win the Wayman Tisdale Award, capturing it in 2010.
Monk and Fox are also on the midseason watch list for the John R. Wooden Award, the national player of the year award from the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
For the latest on the Kentucky men’s basketball team, follow @KentuckyMBB on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
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Eric Lindse