Jay Bilas Names His Pick For National Player Of The Year

With less than two months to go until the 2021 NCAA tournament, the college basketball season is finally taking shape. As a result, Jay Bilas sounds like he’s grown more confident about his choice for the National Player of the Year Award.

Unsurprisingly, the long-time ESPN analyst is sticking by Iowa Hawkeyes center Luka Garza to win the Naismith Trophy handily later this year.

Bilas explained his decision on the Wednesday morning edition of Keyshawn, JWill and Zubin.

“It’s Luka Garza of Iowa,” Bilas said, per 247Sports. “He’ll get it in a walk. It doesn’t mean that he’s going to be the best pro, because he’s not going to be, but he’s been the best college player. The big news is he had two games in a row where he scored under 20 points and I expect the Earth to spin off its axis after that happened. He is the best player, and I think he’ll get it.”

Simply put, Garza’s 2020 season has been outstanding. The Iowa big-man has averaged 25.5 points and 8.4 rebounds per game, while shooting 58.3 percent from the floor and a jaw-dropping 45.3 percent from beyond the arc. Garza got off to a fast start and pushed the Hawkeyes to a top-1o national ranking.

As of late, Iowa has started to cool off, due in part to a few lackluster games from their star. Garza scored under 20 points in consecutive losses to Ohio State and Indiana, knocking his team out of the top-10 and back to 13-6 this season.

However, Bilas and many other college basketball fans don’t think that a few bad games should be held against the 22-year-old. When all is said and done in April, Garza will have proven time and time again that he’s the most dominant player in the nation.

If Iowa is lucky, he may just lead them on a deep NCAA tournament run before he heads to the NBA next year.

The post Jay Bilas Names His Pick For National Player Of The Year appeared first on The Spun.