SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – WKU Hilltopper Basketball senior center Jamarion Sharp was named to the 2023 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award watch list, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced Friday. The annual honor, in its ninth year, recognizes the top center in men's college basketball.
Sharp is the first Hilltopper since Charles Bassey in the fall of 2020 to be named to any of the Naismith's Men's Starting Five watch lists. Bassey was named to the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar watch list for three consecutive seasons (2018, 2019, 2020), becoming a top-five finalist in two of those years. Sharp is only one of four 2023 watch list members from a non-Power Five program.
Sharp was selected to the Conference USA Preseason All-Conference team for the 2022-23 season. In his first year with the Hilltoppers, Sharp averaged 8.2 points and 7.6 rebounds per game and is returning as nation's tallest college basketball player for the second consecutive season. He led the country in blocks per game with 4.62 per outing, totaling 148 on the year.
The reigning C-USA Defensive Player of the Year broke WKU's record for field goal percentage in a single season by shooting 73% on the year. Sharp was a semi-finalist for the Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year award and was a finalist for the Lefty Driesell Defensive Player of the Year award for the 2021-22 season.
Fans are encouraged to participate in Fan Voting, presented by Dell Technologies, in each of the three rounds starting today. In late January, the watch list of 20 players for the 2023 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award will be narrowed to 10 and then in late February to just five. In March, the five finalists will be presented to Abdul-Jabbar and the Hall of Fame's selection committee where a winner will be selected.
Previous winners of the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award are Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky (2022), two-time winner Luka Garza, Iowa (2020-21), Ethan Happ, Wisconsin (2019), Angel Delgado, Seton Hall (2018), Przemek Karnowski, Gonzaga (2017), Jakob Poeltl, Utah (2016) and Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin (2015).
2023 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award Candidates
Charles Bediako, Alabama
Oumar Ballo, Arizona
PJ Hall, Clemson
Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton
Dereck Lively II, Duke
Colin Castleton, Florida
Osun Osunniyi, Iowa State
Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky
Hunter Dickinson, Michigan
Armando Bacot, North Carolina
Moussa Cisse, Oklahoma State
Kel'el Ware, Oregon
Zach Edey, Purdue
Clifford Omoruyi, Rutgers
Fardaws Aimaq, Texas Tech
Adem Bona, UCLA
Adama Sanogo, UConn
Branden Carlson, Utah
Jamarion Sharp, WKU
Jack Nunge, Xavier
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