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IOWA CITY, Iowa — Junior Luka Garza became the first University of Iowa men’s basketball player to be named to the John Wooden Award All-America Team. The announcement was made on Wednesday by The Los Angeles Athletic Club.
Joining Garza on the elite squad is Udoka Azubuike (Kansas), Devon Dotson (Kansas), Malachi Flynn (San Diego State), Obi Toppin (Dayton), Myles Powell (Seton Hall), Markus Howard (Marquette), Filip Petrusev (Gonzaga), Payton Pritchard (Oregon), and Cassius Winston (Michigan State).
The presentation of the John Wooden Award to the men’s most outstanding college basketball player will take place on April 7, during the 4 p.m. (CT) edition of SportsCenter on ESPN.
Last month, Garza was awarded the Pete Newell Big Man of the Year Award by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and five major news outlets named Garza as its national player of the year: Sporting News, Basketball Times, Stadium, Bleacher Report, and ESPN. He is the first Iowa men’s basketball player to earn national player of the year distinction. Garza was also a unanimous consensus first-team All-America selection. He joins former Hawkeyes Murray Wier (1948) and Charles Darling (1952) as the program’s only consensus first team All-Americans.
Garza (740 points and 305 rebounds) is one of three Big Ten players to ever to total 740+ points and 300+ rebounds in a single-season (Purdue’s Glenn Robinson in 1994 and Purdue’s Joe Barry Carroll in 1979). He ranked second nationally with 12 20-point/10-rebound performances, 20-point games (25); third in total field goals made (287) and points per 40 minutes played (29.8), fifth in scoring (23.9), 10th in 30-point games (5), 19th in double-doubles (15) and offensive rebounds per game (3.58), and 34th in rebounding (9.8). His 15 double-doubles are third most in a single-season by a Hawkeye in three decades and the most since 2002 (Reggie Evans, 18). Garza averaged 26.7 points, 11.1 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks in 12 games against AP ranked opponents in 2019-20, including recording 11 straight 20-point performances, the longest streak by any player since UConn’s Kemba Walker in 2011.
The Big Ten and USBWA District VI Player of the Year, finished the 20-game conference schedule averaging 26.2 points per game, becoming the first player to average at least 26 points in Big Ten play since Purdue’s Glenn Robinson in 1994 (31.1 ppg). Garza scored a school-record 740 points this season, breaking the program’s 50-year old record previously set by John Johnson in 1970. He scored 20 points or more in a school-record 16 straight Big Ten games, the longest streak by any player in the Big Ten since Ohio State’s Dennis Hopson 16 in 1987.
Garza is the only Big Ten player to register seven 25-point/10-rebound performances in the same season in more than 17 years. He has produced the two highest point totals in a game by a Big Ten player this season (44 at Michigan; 38 at Indiana).
LUKA GARZA HONORS (2019-20)
• Sporting News, Basketball Times, Stadium, Bleacher Report, and ESPN National Player of the Year
• Dick Vitale, Seth Davis, Andy Katz’s National Player of the Year
• Unanimous Consensus First-Team All-America
• Wooden Award All-American Team
• NABC Pete Newell Big Man of the Year
• Big Ten Men’s Basketball Player of the Year
• USBWA District VI Player of the Year
• Naismith Trophy, Wooden Award, Oscar Robertson Trophy, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, and Lute Olson Award finalist
