Garza Wins Basketball Times Player Of The Year

It's the sixth national POY honor for the Iowa center.

Luka Garza keeps adding national player of the year honors.

The Iowa junior center was named player of the year by Basketball Times on Thursday, the sixth media outlet to honor him this postseason.

Garza also was named player of the year by Sporting News, Stadium, The Athletic, Bleacher Report, and ESPN. Garza is the first player in Iowa history to earn national player of the year honors.

Garza also was voted the USBWA District VI Player of the Year and Big Ten men's basketball player of the year.

Garza, a Washington, D.C., native, is a finalist for five national awards — the Naismith Trophy, Oscar Robertson Trophy, Wooden Award, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, and the Lute Olson Award.

Garza finished the 20-game Big Ten schedule averaging 26.2 points per game, becoming the first player to average at least 26 points in Big Ten play since Purdue's Glenn Robinson averaged 31.1 points per game in 1994.

He scored a school-record 740 points this season, breaking the program's 50-year-old mark previously set by John Johnson in 1970. He scored 20 points or more in a school-record 16 straight Big Ten games, the longest streak by any player in the Big Ten since Ohio State's Dennis Hopson 16 in 1987.

GARZA'S HONORS

• Sporting News, Basketball Times, Stadium, The Athletic, Bleacher Report, ESPN National Player of the Year

• Dick Vitale and Andy Katz’s National Player of the Year

• Sports Illustrated, Sporting News, CBS, NBC, ESPN, Stadium, USA Today First-Team All-America

• Big Ten player of the year

• USBWA District VI Player of the Year

• Naismith Trophy Finalist

• Wooden Award National Ballot

• Oscar Robertson Player of the Year Trophy Semifinalist

• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award Finalist

• Lute Olson Award Top 30