Feb. 13, 2016
The Atlanta Tip Off Club has announced the Naismith Trophy midseason finalists and Notre Dame junior guard Demetrius Jackson is among the 35 student-athletes still in the running for the college basketball player-of-the-year award.
Since 1969, The Naismith Trophy has been given annually to the nation’s best college basketball player. Dominant center Lew Alcindor (UCLA) won the first award and scoring machine Pete Maravich (LSU) earned it the following year. In recent seasons past winners included seniors Frank Kaminsky (Wisconsin, 2015) and Doug McDermott (Creighton, 2014), freshmen Anthony Davis (Kentucky, 2012) and Kevin Durant (Texas, 2007), guards such as Trey Burke (Michigan, 2013) and forwards like Blake Griffin (Oklahoma, 2009).
Jackson is averaging 16.2 points, 5.0 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game for Notre Dame in 2015-16. One of the best all-around point guards in the nation, the Mishawaka, Ind., native has five games this season where he has scored more than five points, grabbed more than five rebounds and dished out more than five assists.
Jackson was sidelined for one game this season with a hamstring pull, which he suffered in the first two minutes of the game with Boston College on Jan. 23. If you subtract the BC game from his stat line, Jackson’s averages per game increase to 16.9 ppg, 5.2 apg, 1.5 spg and 36.5 minutes played.