Garza Named To Wooden All-America Team
Iowa center Luka Garza was named to the John Wooden Award All-America Team, the first Hawkeye to receive the honor.
The announcement was made on Wednesday by The Los Angeles Athletic Club.
Joining Garza on the team was Udoka Azubuike (Kansas), Devon Dotson (Kansas), Malachi Flynn (San Diego State), Obi Toppin (Dayton), Myles Powell (Seton Hall), Markus Howard (Marquette), Filip Petrusev (Gonzaga), Payton Pritchard (Oregon), and Cassius Winston (Michigan State).
Garza is a finalist for the Wooden Award, given to the men's national player of the year. The award will be presented on April 7, during the 4 p.m. (CDT) edition of SportsCenter on ESPN.
Garza was awarded the Pete Newell Big Man of the Year Award by the National Association of Basketball Coaches earlier this week. Five major news outlets named Garza as its national player of the year — Sporting News,Basketball Times, Stadium, Bleacher Report, and ESPN.
Garza is the first Iowa men’s basketball player to earn national player of the year distinction. He was also a unanimous consensus first-team All-America selection, joining former Hawkeyes Murray Wier (1948) and Charles Darling (1952) as the program’s only consensus first-team All-Americans.
Garza set a school single-season record with 740 points, and had 305 rebounds. He was the Big Ten player of the year as well as the USBWA's District VI player of the year.
Garza averaged 26.2 points per game in Big Ten play, and ended the season with a streak of 16 consecutive games of 20 or more points in conference play, matching the streak of Ohio State's Dennis Hopson in 1987.
GARZA HONORS
• Sporting News, Basketball Times, Stadium, Bleacher Report, and ESPN National Player of the Year
• Dick Vitale, Seth Davis, Andy Katz’s National Player of the Year
• Unanimous Consensus First-Team All-America
• Wooden Award All-American Team
• NABC Pete Newell Big Man of the Year
• Big Ten Men's Basketball Player of the Year
• USBWA District VI Player of the Year
• Naismith Trophy, Wooden Award, Oscar Robertson Trophy, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, and Lute Olson Award finalist
