Arizona's Caleb Love has been named one of five finalists for the Jerry West Award, honoring college basketball's top shooting guard.
Already considered a favorite to win the Pac-12 Player of the Year next week, Love leads the Wildcats in scoring and is fourth in the conference with an average of 19.4 points a game. During Pac-12 games, Love ranks second with an average of 21.2 points a game.
Love has also improved his shooting efficiency over last season at North Carolina, from 29.9% to 36.2% from 3-point range and from 37.8% to 43.5% overall. He tied the Matthew Knight Arena scoring record with 36 points on Jan. 27 at Eugene and has scored 20 or more points in 14 games despite Arizona's balanced offense.
Love's former teammate at UNC, RJ Davis, is also a Jerry West Award finalist. Others include Kansas' Kevin McCullar, Kentucky's Antonio Reeves and Michigan State's Tyson Walker.
When Love faced Walker during Arizonaโs 74-68 win over Michigan State on Nov. 23, the two put up comparable performances. Love had 17 points on 7 for 20 shooting (though only 2 of 9 from 3) with four rebounds, four assists and two steals; Walker had 18 points on 8-for-20 shooting (2 for 6 from 3), four rebounds and four assists โ but one of Love's steals came in the final seconds and led to a game-clinching dunk from KJ Lewis.
Five players were trimmed from Jerry West's top 10 list released on Jan. 30: FAU's Johnell Davis, USC's Boogie Ellis, Baylor's JaโKobe Walter, Creighton's Trey Alexander and Houston's LJ Cryer.
The Jerry West Award is one of five positional awards given out by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Arizona's Keshad Johnson was named a top 10 finalist for its Karl Malone (power forward) award, and that list is likely to be trimmed on Thursday, since the Naismith positional awards are updated over the five days of a given week, starting with point guards (Bob Cousy) on Mondays and finishing with centers (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) on Friday.
UA's Oumar Ballo was not named to the top 10 list for the Abdul-Jabbar Award on Feb. 2, but has posted a double-double in every game since Feb. 1, a string of nine straight.
Here's how the five West finalists stack up statistically:
Player School 2FG% 3FG% PPG RPG APG
Caleb Love Arizona (23-6, AP 5) 51.2 36.2 19.4 4.3 3.5
RJ Davis North Carolina (23-6,* AP 7) 49.4 36.2 21.4 3.8 3.4
Kevin McCullar, Kansas (21-8*, AP 14) 52.7 33.6 19.1 6.4 4.3
Antonio Reeves, Kentucky (21-8, AP 15) 55.5 44.2 20.0 4.1 1.7
Tyson Walker, Michigan State (17-12 NR) 48.3 37.2 18.0 2.9 2.9
