KU’s Malik Newman a candidate for Jerry West shooting guard award
Kansas sophomore combo guard Malik Newman has been chosen to the 2018 Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award watch list, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced Tuesday.
Andrew Jones of Texas and Daxter Miles of West Virginia were the other Big 12 players included on the list of 20 award candidates.
Newman, a 6-foot-3 transfer from Mississippi State, recently was voted Big 12 preseason newcomer of the year and received preseason All-Big 12 honorable mention.
He averaged 11.3 points and started 22 of 29 games at Mississippi his freshman season. He averaged 18.5 points a game in August on KU’s four-game exhibition trip to Italy. He scored 32 points in the finale versus the Italy All-Stars.
“I always thought Boschee was instant offense. I’m sure people who followed Kansas back then did too. He had the green light to put it up. That’s how Malik will play in a lot of ways,” KU coach Bill Self said recently of Newman, comparing him to Jeff Boschee, who played at KU from 1999 to 2002. “Malik has point guard skill just like Jeff did.
“His mentality is shoot the ball to score the ball. He had a stretch over in Italy … he didn’t make a layup and I think he had 25 points in 11 minutes (one game). That’s scoring strictly on jump shots. He is a jump shooter and whether it be from three or in-between game or go get his own, he’s pretty efficient doing that.”
The others on the Jerry West watch list: Grayson Allen, Duke; KeVaughn Allen, Florida; Tyus Battle, Syracuse; Bruce Brown, Miami; Khadeen Carrington, Seton Hall; Hamidou Diallo, Kentucky; Marcus Foster, Creighton; Rob Gray, Houston; T.J. Haws, BYU; Mustapha Heron, Auburn; E.C. Matthews, Rhode Island; De’Anthony Melton, USC; Shamorie Ponds, St. John’s; Jerome Robinson, Boston College; Allonzo Trier, Arizona; Lonnie Walker, Miami; Quinndary Weatherspoon, Mississippi State.
Gary Bedore: 816-234-4068, @garybedore
This story was originally published October 17, 2017 at 1:56 PM with the headline "KU’s Malik Newman a candidate for Jerry West shooting guard award."