Two Wildcats Named to Preseason Watch Lists

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – With the 2015-16 college basketball season merely a few weeks away, several early season honors have begun to roll in. Veterans Alex Poythress and Tyler Ulis were named to positional award watch lists by the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame on Tuesday. 

Poythress earned recognition to the Julius Erving award for the country’s best-performing small forward, while Ulis was one of 20 players selected to the Bob Cousy list for the nation’s top point guard. 

Poythress will return to the floor following a season-ending ACL injury that forced him to miss the final 29 games of the season a year ago. A powerful presence in the post, Poythress is just 90 rebounds shy of becoming the 52nd player in program history to snatch 500 or more career boards. He’s also on pace to become the 61st player in school history to top 1,000 career points. He will enter his senior season with 649 career points.

Ulis earned All-Southeastern Conference Freshman Team recognition a season ago and appeared in 37 games during UK’s historic 2014-15 season. The Lima, Ohio native led the Wildcats in assists in 20 contests, while posting five or more dimes in 12 games. He did not commit a turnover in any of UK’s final four games of the season during the NCAA Tournament run. He concluded his freshman campaign ranking third in the country and first among league competition for his 3.6 assist-to-turnover ratio.  

Both lists will be narrowed down to 10 in mid-February and then five finalists will be selected in March. The winners of the awards will be presented at the second annual ESPN College Basketball Awards Show in Los Angeles on April 8.