• Basketball
  • National Awards Pouring in for Iowa Senior Luka Garza, Including AP Player of the Year

National Awards Pouring in for Iowa Senior Luka Garza, Including AP Player of the Year

Details
Basketball

University of Iowa senior Luka Garza is the recipient of three national player of the year awards announced: Lute Olson Award, Oscar Robertson Trophy, and Associated Press College Basketball Player of the Year.

OSCAR ROBERTSON TROPHY
• Garza is Iowa’s first Oscar Robertson Trophy winner and the first from the Big Ten since Wisconsin’s Frank Kaminsky in the 2014-15 season. He is the eighth player and the ninth overall honoree from the Big Ten. Following a 15-year hiatus between 1995-2009, the Big Ten has now claimed four of the last 12 awards.

• The Oscar Robertson Trophy is voted on by the entire USBWA membership, which consists of more than 900 journalists. The Oscar Robertson Trophy is the nation’s oldest award. The legendary Oscar Robertson was the USBWA’s first player of the year in 1959 and was the consensus national player of the year as a sophomore in 1958, the year before the USBWA started giving its player of the year award. The USBWA renamed the award the Oscar Robertson Trophy in 1998.

ASSOCIATED PRESS COLLEGE BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR
• Garza is the first Hawkeye and 12th player from a Big Ten school to win the Associated Press College Basketball Player of the Year Award.

• Garza was the clear choice for the award, receiving 50 of the 63 votes. Ayo Dosunmu of Illinois was second with six votes, followed by Oklahoma State’s Cade Cunningham with three. Gonzaga’s Corey Kispert and Baylor’s Jared Butler each earned two votes.

• Garza was the runner-up for last year’s AP College Basketball Player of the Year (Obi Toppin).

• The Associated Press College Basketball Player of the Year award was established in 1961, recognizing the top men’s college basketball player, as voted upon by the Associated Press (AP).

LUTE OLSON NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARD
• Garza is the first Hawkeye and third player from a Big Ten school to win the Lute Olson National Player of the Year Award, joining Denzel Valentine of Michigan State in 2016 and Purdue’s Caleb Swanigan in 2017.

• The award, which has been presented annually to the top Division I college basketball player since 2010, is named in honor of Hall of Fame coach Lute Olson. He won 776 games in 34 seasons, nine of which were spent at the University of Iowa. Olson, who passed away last August, is one of 25 head coaches in NCAA history to win 700 or more games (all divisions) and ranks ninth on the Division I career victories list. Olson is the all-time winningest coach at Arizona (587-190, .755) and third winningest coach in Iowa history (167-91, .647).