Two starters from Alabama men’s basketball are up for prestigious college basketball awards for their performances this season.
Alabama starting center Clifford Omoruyi has been named to the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year watch list and starting point guard Mark Sears has been named to the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year watch list.
Omoruyi is one of 15 candidates on the list, which includes premier college basketball players such as Johni Broome from Auburn, Cooper Flagg from Duke and Zakai Zeigler from Tennessee.
This season, Omoruyi has averaged 7.3 points per game along with 6.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocks, as well as three games with double-digit rebound totals.
He is a new face for the Crimson Tide this year after transferring from Rutgers, where he was a three-year starter. During his time with the Scarlet Knights, he was a two-time Big Ten All-Defensive team member and averaged over two blocks per game each season he started
The winner of the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award will be announced during the first week of April, leading up to the Final Four.
Sears made the list of 10 players named to the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award watch list. Sears joins a list of notable point guards such as Braden Smith from Purdue, Kam Jones from Marquette, Zeigler from Tennessee and Ace Baldwin Jr. from Penn State.
Sears currently is averaging 17.8 points per game on 40% 3-point shooting, which ranks third in the SEC. Sears averages five assists per game, which also ranks third in the conference.
He is coming off a year in which he led the Crimson Tide to its first Final Four appearance in program history and set the program record for the most points in a season with 797.
Sears and Omoruyi currently have helped lead Alabama to a 20-3 record, and as the Crimson Tide currently sit in a tie for first place in the SEC at 9-1.
The five finalists for the Bob Cousy Award will be announced early in March, and the winner of the award will be announced in late March.
