Awarded for | the nation's top male center in NCAA basketball |
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Country | United States |
Presented by | Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame |
History | |
First award | 2015 |
Most recent | Zach Edey, Purdue |
Website | Official website |
The Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award is an annual basketball award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the top men's collegiate center. Following the success of the Bob Cousy Award which had been awarded since 2004, the award was one of four new awards (along with the Jerry West Award, Julius Erving Award and Karl Malone Award) created as part of the inaugural College Basketball Awards show in 2015.[1] It is named after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee who played the position. The inaugural winner was Frank Kaminsky of Wisconsin.[2]