Gonzaga's Holmgren one of 10 late-season Karl Malone Award candidates

This week has been busy for several Gonzaga men’s basketball players in the world of awards and honors. Most recently on Thursday, freshman center Chet Holmgren was included on the short list of college basketball’s 10 best centers who are being considered for this season’s Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award.

The Minnesota native’s name was included on the updated list by the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame. Also on the list are fellow freshman standouts Paolo Banchero from Duke and Auburn’s Jabari Smith.

Holmgren’s average of 3.37 blocks per game and total of 64 blocks this season ranks eighth and ninth in college basketball respectively, but are the leading block numbers for the 10 candidates on the Karl Malone Award list. Statistically, Holmgren has been the sixth best field goal shooter in the country this season at 63.3%, which also leads all 10 of the power forwards in consideration.

In recent weeks, Homgren’s three-point shooting has taken off as the 7-foot-1 big man has been shooting 63.9% from beyond the arc in his last six games while averaging 16 points per contest over that span.

The last winner of the Karl Malone Award was none other than GU’s Drew Timme who took the award home after averaging 19 points and 7 rebounds a game last season.

After starting off with 20 names in November and now being down to 10, the list of Karl Malone Award candidates will be shrunk down once more to five names in late February. The winner will then be voted on by Malone, a 14-NBA All-Star, and a committee of voters in March.

Those voters will also help select the winner of the other four position awards, including for the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award, which GU guard Andrew Nembhard also made the list of 10 names of on Monday.

So far this season, Nembhard has been averaging 10.2 points, 5.3 assists and 2.8 blocks per game. He also has 32 steals and has been shooting 44.6% from the field after shooting 50% in total over his last five games.

Along with Nembhard, Alabama’s Jahvon Quinerly, Baylor’s James Akinjo, UCLA’s Tyger Campbell and Collin Gillespie from Villanova are some of the names featured on the increasingly short list.

Last season’s winner was former University of Illinois and current Chicago Bulls guard Iyo Dosunmo.

Holmgren is also named alongside front-court companion Timme on the John R. Wooden Late Season Top 20 list. The John R. Wooden Award is annually given out in both men’s and women’s college basketball to the most outstanding player as decided on by nearly 1,000 voters.

This year’s list also came out on Monday and only includes one other pair of teammates — Purdue’s center Zach Edey and shooting guard Jaden Ivey. Timme is also one of two players to have made it onto the 20-player list for this prestigious award both this season and last season, the other player being Illinois’ Kofi Cockburn.

The top 15 players in the country will then be put on a ballot in March which lead to a final decision on the winner being made after votes are cast.

The winners of the five position awards who will make up the Wooden Award All American Team will be announced during the Elite Eight, and the John R. Wooden award winner will be announced after the national championship game in April. Last year’s winner was former Iowa center Luka Garza.