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UConn's Adama Sanogo Added to the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Watch List

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Basketball

UConn sophomore Adama Sanogo has been named to the 10-player watch list for the 2022 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award, announced on Friday by Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

The annual award, in its eighth season, recognizes the top centers in men's college basketball. A national committee of top college basketball personnel determined the watch list of 20 candidates in November, which has now been narrowed to 10. Fans are encouraged to take part in Fan Voting presented by Dell Technologies as the award narrows down its candidates from 10 to 5 by late February. In March, those 5 candidates will be presented to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar himself as well as a Hall of Fame selection committee and a winner will be selected.

Sanogo, a 6-9 sophomore from Bamako, Mali, is the second-leading scorer (15.0) and leading rebounder (8.4) for the 17th-ranked Huskies (15-5). In BIG EAST games, he is the top rebounder in the conference (10.6), the top offensive rebounder in the conference (4.0), leads the league in field goal percentage (.490), and is seventh in scoring (14.4).

Sanogo has led UConn in scoring in seven games this season, including a team-high game of 30 points against No. 1 Auburn, and led the team in rebounding in six games, including a team-high of 18 rebounds against St. John's. Sanogo, who has 11 double-figure scoring games and four double-doubles this season, has been named the BIG EAST Player of the Week twice this season and has also been named to the league's Weekly Honor Roll.

The legendary Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA's all-time leading scorer, a six-time NBA Champion, six-time NBA Most Valuable Player, two-time NBA Finals MVP and a19-time NBA All-Star. As a collegiate player at UCLA (1966-69), he was a three-time NCAA Champion who earned numerous accolades including three-time Final Four Most Outstanding Player, three-time National College Player of the Year and three-time Consensus First-Team All-American (1967-1969).

Previous winners of the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award include two-time winner Luka Garza, Iowa (2020-21), Ethan Happ, Wisconsin (2019), Angel Delgado, Seton Hall (2018), Przemek Karnowski, Gonzaga (2017), Jakob Poeltl, Utah (2016) and Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin (2015).