Toppin Wins Naismith Award

Iowa's Garza was a finalist for award given to top player in college basketball.

Dayton's Obi Toppin was named the winner of the Naismith Award on Friday, given to the top player in college basketball.

Iowa junior center Luka Garza was a finalist for the award.

Toppin averaged 20 points and 7.5 rebounds this season, shooting 63.3 percent from the field.

Garza averaged 23.9 points and 9.8 rebounds, shooting 54.2 percent from the field.

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 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 was named the player of the year in fan voting by FOX on Friday.

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.