Gonzaga's Timme, Holmgren semifinalists for Naismith College Player of the Year Award
Timme and Holmgren combine to average 31.7 points and 15.9 rebounds a game this season.
Gonzaga men’s basketball’s Chet Holmgren and Drew Timme are both semifinalists for the Naismith Trophy College Player of the Year Award. The Atlanta Tipoff Committee announced the list of 10 athletes in consideration for the award on Friday as Holmgren and Timme continue to be recognized for their season-long performances.
Holmgren, the West Coast Conference defensive player of the year and freshman of the year, has been reliable for GU on both ends of the court this year. While averaging 14.2 points a contest on 61% shooting, he’s also averaging 9.6 rebounds and the fourth most blocks in college basketball at 3.59 per game. A defensive presence, when Holmgren is on the court, teams have shot an average of 10% lower against the Zags opposed to when he’s off it.
Meanwhile Timme is this season’s WCC player of the year after averaging the most points in WCC games this season with 18.5 points averaged against conference opponents. Last season’s Karl Malone power forward of the year has been averaging 6.3 rebounds and shooting at a 58.82% clip which ranks 14th in the country.
The two Zags are the only WCC players to make the list of 10 semifinalists, which will be truncated to four finalists once the Atlanta Tipoff Committee national voting academy cast their ballots in the coming weeks. The fan vote, which will count for 5% of the complete vote, will be opened up to the public once the finalists are decided upon and then the Naismith Award trophy will be presented April 3.
There are four Big Ten players on the list, two from the SEC and one from the BIG 12 and PAC-12 each. Some of the other finalists include the Big 12’s player of the year, Kansas guard Ochai Agbaji, the SEC player of the year and the nation’s rebounder in blocks Oscar Tshiebwe from Kentucky and the PAC-12 player of the year Bennedict Mathurin. The only other freshman featured on the semifinalist list outside of Holmgren is Auburn’s Jabari Smith, who’s averaging 17.1 points and 6.9 boards per outing.
Holmgren and Timme are in consideration for a handful of other awards this season, including them both being a finalist for the national award at their respective positions — Holmgren for the Karl Malone award and Timme in the running for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award. Both of the Zags’ big men are also in top 15 consideration for the John R. Wooden Award which awards the most outstanding player in college basketball as per the standards put forth by Coach Wooden in 1976.
Voters from the Atlanta Tipoff Committee will take into account each player's complete breadth of play throughout the 2021-22 season, including the ongoing postseason action as it unfolds.
