Baylor men’s basketball junior Johnathan Motley has been named as one of 20 players on the 2017 Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award watch list, as announced Thursday by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Motley is the only player from a Texas university on the watch list and is one of two Big 12 players on the list, joining Kansas’ Carlton Bragg Jr. The Houston native has played all 68 games, including 40 starts, over his first two seasons of action following a redshirt in 2013-14.
Motley has also been named to the five-player 2017 Preseason All-Big 12 team by the league’s coaches. He averaged 11.1 points and 5.1 rebounds in 20.9 minutes per game last season. Motley led the Big 12 and posted the sixth-best single-season field goal percentage in program history by making 61.4 percent of his shots in 2015-16.
Named after Hall of Famer and two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Karl Malone, the annual honor in its third year recognizes the top power forwards in Division I men’s college basketball. A national committee comprised of top college basketball personnel determined the watch list of 20 candidates. Previous award winners are Louisville’s Montrezl Harrell (2015) and Iowa State’s Georges Niang (2016).
By mid-February, the watch list of 20 players will be narrowed to just 10. In March, five finalists will be submitted to Mr. Malone and the Hall of Fame’s selection committee. The award winner will be presented at the ESPN College Basketball Awards Show presented by Wendy’s in Los Angeles on April 7. Broadcast information will be released at a later date. For more information on the 2016 Karl Malone Award, log onto www.HoophallAwards.com.
The Bears open the 2016-17 season on Nov. 11 when they host Oral Roberts at the Ferrell Center. That game will tip off at 6 p.m. CT on ESPNU. For season tickets, call the Baylor Athletics Ticket Office at 254-710-1000, or visit www.BaylorBears.com/tickets for more information. Single-game tickets go on sale Oct. 28.
2017 KARL MALONE AWARD WATCH LIST
Lauri Markkanen, Arizona
Johnathan Motley, Baylor
Ivan Rabb, California
Amile Jefferson, Duke
Jonathan Isaac, Florida State
Yante Maten, Georgia
Carlton Bragg Jr., Kansas
Dedric Lawson, Memphis
Miles Bridges, Michigan State
Isaiah Hicks, North Carolina
Bonzie Colson, Notre Dame
Michael Young, Pittsburgh
Caleb Swanigan, Purdue
Tyler Lydon, Syracuse
TJ Leaf, UCLA
Bennie Boatwright, USC
Alec Peters, Valparaiso
Kris Jenkins, Villanova
Austin Nichols, Virginia
Nigel Hayes, Wisconsin
