Three Wildcats Make Naismith Trophy Preseason Watch List
ATLANTA – Kentucky men’s basketball players Keion Brooks Jr., Kellan Grady and TyTy Washington Jr. are among the early candidates for the 2022 Naismith Trophy Men’s Player of the of the Year honor, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced Monday.
The trio is among 50 candidates for the award, presented annually to the national player of the year. Anthony Davis, who collected virtually every major national player of the year award in 2012, is the lone Wildcat to win the Naismith Trophy in Kentucky’s decorated history.
UK is one of four schools (Baylor, Gonzaga and Kansas) with three preseason candidates.
The Southeastern Conference has nine preseason picks, tied for the most of any league (Big 12).
A list of the midseason 30 team will be released in early February, followed by the 10 national semifinalists and four finalists in March. Players who do not make the watch list are still eligible to be selected for the midseason 30 team. The 2022 Naismith Trophy will be awarded during the Final Four at the Naismith Awards Brunch.
Grady and Washington were also recently named to the Lute Olson Award preseason watch list, which CollegeInsider.com gives to its pick for national player of the year.
Brooks, Grady and Washington are expected to play leading roles for the Wildcats this season and made great impressions in Kentucky’s two exhibition victories vs. Kentucky Wesleyan and Miles College.
Washington led UK in scoring in the exhibition season with 16.5 points per game on 59.1% shooting. The freshman from Phoenix made all six of his 3-point shots and dished out eight assists over the two games.
Highlighted by 13 points in the come-from-behind win vs. Miles College, Grady averaged 10.0 points in the preseason with four 3-pointers.
Brooks tallied 12.0 points per game on 50.0% shooting. He showed his versatility with nine total rebounds and four 3-pointers.
Now a junior, Brooks returns with more points and more rebounds at Kentucky than any player on the roster. After missing the first nine games last season with a leg injury, he made a big leap in his sophomore season with 10.3 points per game and a team-best 6.8 boards per contest.
Brooks was one of three captains in the 2020-21 season. He was a preseason All-Southeastern Conference Second Team pick by both the league’s media and its coaches.
A graduate transfer from Davidson College, Grady is utilizing the COVID-19 extra season of eligibility. He scored 2,002 points at Davidson and averaged at least 17.1 points in all four seasons. Grady enters the 2021-22 year with the second-most points in college basketball, behind only Antoine Davis from Detroit Mercy.
Grady is also on the preseason watch list for the Jerry West Award, given annually by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the nation’s top shooting guard. He was also a preseason All-SEC Second Team picks by the media and coaches.
Washington is regarded as one of the top freshmen in the country. A five-star prospect, Washington was ranked as high as No. 14 overall by Rivals and ESPN in the final 2021 recruiting rankings. ESPN tabbed him the No. 2 overall point guard.
At AZ Compass Prep last season, Washington averaged 24.0 points, 7.0 assists and 6.0 rebounds per game, which finished 30-2 in his senior season. Washington was named the MaxPreps Arizona Player of the Year and was selected to the 2021 Iverson Roundball Classic.
Kentucky opens the regular season Tuesday night in Madison Square Garden in New York vs. No. 9/9 Duke in the annual Champions Classic. It will be the Wildcats’ eighth top-10 showdown (Associated Press Top 25) in the 11th year of the Champions Classic. UK is 5-5 in the annual series. The game is slated to tip at approximately 9:30 p.m. on ESPN.
Stocked with a school-record six transfers who played major minutes at other schools, key returners, only three freshmen and aided by the COVID-19 extra year of eligibility, UK will start the season with 13,385 minutes at the NCAA Division I level. That is more than any team in program history entering a season (minute statistics available through the 1964-65 season).
For the latest on the Kentucky men’s basketball team, follow @KentuckyMBB on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
