Iowa center Luca Garza knew, when he met on the telephone the other day, that the conversation would aim to discuss his selection as the Sporting News College Basketball Player of the Year for the 2020-21 season. So it was not a phone call that he was unable to make. This was good news.
Within moments of saying hello, he learned that he was better than he had ever been in a dream.
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We also had a winner as Garza Junior in 2019-20. Which means he has won for the second consecutive season. The last player to be selected as Sporting News Player of the Year in consecutive seasons was a fellow who is universally known in his early days: M.J.
“Oh, wow,” Garza said as she related this information.
Sporting News has presented the award uninterrupted since 1958, and it dates back to the 1943 season. Oscar Robertson (1958, 1959, 1960), Jerry Lucas (1961, 1962) were the only men to win it in consecutive years since Bill Bradley (1964, 1965), Bill Walton (1972, 1973, 1974) and Michael Jordan. Karim Abdul-Jabbar won it twice in 1967 and 1969, but his reign was interrupted by Alvin Hayes’ tremendous 1968 season.
Did anyone else get dizzy from this discussion of basketball greats, or is it just Luca?
“Honestly, just to hear what’s real,” Garza told Sporting News. “It’s not something I ever thought I could do, but I always worked as hard as I could. I never came to college expecting that kind of stuff. I just wanted to win. I wanted to work hard and make myself the best player.
It turns out, the player is better than the other 4,500 or so Division I men’s basketball, for the second year in a row. Garza stands above a strong field of candidates, leading all Hawkeyes-conference scorers with 24.3 points per game, averaging 8.4 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, 55.1 percent field shooting and 45.5 percent accuracy on 3-pointers. Was. Guard Ayo Dosanmu of Illinois and boiler guard Jared Butler.
As a high school player at Merrett School in Washington, Garza was ranked as the 118th best prospect in the 2017 recruiting class. It was underestimated from the start, when he rebounded as a Hausman to 12.1 points and 6.4 rebellions for a reconstruction. Squads that finished 13th in the Big Ten. He was good for 13.1 points a year later, but gave a hint at the finer things to come up with 20 points over Cincinnati in the 2019 NCAA Tournament and lost in the second round 13 times to heavily support Tennessee in the Overseas Round .
He became a key player as a junior, demonstrating an unusual ability to finish with both hands, stamina to the last 32 minutes per game, dealing with the seemingly string of elite college big men in the Big Ten For speed, Minnesota among them. Daniel Oturu, Michigan State’s Xavier Tillman and Maryland’s Jalan Smith, now playing in the NBA. Garza averaged 23 points and 9.8 and gave up a string of 20-point games that reached 16.
He has failed to reach double digits only once in the past two seasons, requiring only 23 minutes and an eight-point contribution in a stormy win over Michigan State last month. It is by no means a better Hawkeyes team than designed to play the role of Guardia and challenge for the Big Ten tournament title, and the final performance.
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Apparently, he had already completed a ton in college basketball, reaching disappointing results last season by the time the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments were canceled due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Although he was unlikely to be an NBA draft pick, he could play professionally, as pro teams across the ocean were eager to sign him. Garza opted to play another year with the Hawkeyes.
“There’s not a part of me that regrets my decision,” Garza said. “I love this place. I love my teammates. I love my coaches and I love every moment of being here. Obviously, this year is a little different in terms of being hyper-focused on basketball. , But the family atmosphere we have at the University of Iowa makes it a lot of fun. It’s really a blessing to be on this team and play with some of the people I’ve done. “
While Iowa ranked No. 25 in the AP poll last season and finished fifth in a loaded Big Ten before March Madness, the team ranked No. 5 in the nation and third in the conference. This is partly because shooter Jordan Bohonen returned to the team after recovering from hip surgery, with Connor McPherry’s passing ability providing 3.6 assists in 22 minutes per game, backup playmaker Joe Tucent providing another 2.3 assists in 11 minutes, Talented freshmen Keegan Murray and Patrick McCaffery have deepened rotation and guards who become even more lethal as Wiscomp and CJ Frederick shooters. Iowa ranks third in the nation in 3-point shooting percentage.
The Hawkeyes have also become, after years of struggle, a more formidable defensive team. During Garza’s career, he ranked 242nd, 111th, and 97th in defensive efficiency according to kenpom.com. This season, too, after losing four out of five games, they dropped out of the Division I top 100 in that category.
With Garza as the team’s final line of defense, Iowa has moved up to 58th place. This is not an extraordinary efficiency, but it is a massive improvement. And with the No. 2 offense at his disposal, defending at this level gives Iowa the ability to win many of the biggest games.
“I think we are really committed to understand that if we want to win the game, we have to play a defense game, and we have to get stops and we have to play every possession.” “You can’t shut down anything – especially when you’re playing the teams you’re in the Big Ten, because they’re going to pay you. And that’s what happened to us.
“In the section where we dropped a doubles, the interesting thing was that our offense was scoring really well, and then we had a little dry, and that’s where the game got away from us as we stopped. Were not able to continue. During that drought. Once we realized that we were able to stop consistently throughout the game, our offense was going to come at some point. We had a really high level of scoring. Ability. “
Garza believes he is “100 percent” better than the younger man who won the Sporting News Player of the Year honors last year. The 2020 progeny was different than in the past because the epidemic affected all aspects of her life, just like everyone else, but it allowed her to invest an extraordinary amount of time and energy to increase her strength, stamina, and basketball skills. Did not stop from doing.
“I worked very hard this summer, trying to improve myself as much as possible”, said Garza. “Because I knew when I was back in college, I wanted to help this team and lead them to win the championship, to get myself in position to score a run in March. I think. We have got some great wins this year, and we are not satisfied.
He said, ‘I am just thankful that I have teammates who make me good. Because I am a big man, and for me to be able to score, I need to have some great guards who can put me in position to be able to do that, and they did it countless times in my career is. “
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