Feb. 19, 2015
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Jerian Grant, one of two players in the 110-history of the University of Notre Dame men’s basketball with more than 1,500 points and 600 assists, is among 16 candidates for the inaugural 2015 Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award, announced today by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Named after Hall of Famer and 1959 NCAA Final Four Most Valuable Player Jerry West, the award will recognize the top shooting guard in Division I men’s college basketball. A national committee of top college basketball personnel helped determine the 16 candidates in 2014-15.
By early March, the current list of 15 finalists will be narrowed down to five players. The winner, who will be determined by West and the Hall of Fame’s appointed selection committee, will be presented with the award at ESPN’s new College Basketball Show live from Club Nokia in Los Angeles, California on Friday, April 10.
Grant is averaging a team-leading 17.3 points per game, 6.4 assists per game and 1.9 steals per game on an Irish team that is having one of its best seasons in program history. Notre Dame has a 23-4 overall record, stands second in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings with an 11-3 mark and is ranked 10th nationally.
The 6-3, 205-pound native of Bowie, Maryland, has scored 1,578 points (14.6 ppg.), dished off 609 assists (5.6 aspg.) and made 163 steals (1.5 spg.) during his career in an Irish uniform in which he has played in 108 games and started 106 of those contests. He has reached double figures 24 times during the 2014-15 campaign and 89 times over the course of his three-plus seasons on the court. Grant has scored 20-plus points on nine occasions this year and 23 times throughout his career. He had a career high 27 points in Notre Dame’s 79-78 overtime win over Michigan State in early December and finished with 23 points and a career-high 12 assists in a 77-73 victory over fourth-ranked Duke. Grant has recorded three double-doubles on the season and seven during his career.
He ranks in the top-10 nationally in three different categories — assist-to-turnover ratio (ninth), assists (10th) and assists per game (10th) and in the top-10 of the ACC in 10 separate statistical categories. Grant leads the ACC in assists per game (6.2) and assist-to-turnover ration (3.22). His 2.56 assist-to-turnover ratio ranks fourth nationally among all active Division I players.
In addition to Grant, the 15 other individual under consideration for the award include: Ron Baker (Wichita State), James Blackmon Jr. (Indiana), Malcolm Brogdon (Virginia), D’Angelo Harrison (St. John’s), Tyler Harvey (Eastern Washington), Tyler Haws (Brigham Young), Buddy Hield (Oklahoma), Trevor Lacey (North Carolina State), E.C. Matthews (Rhode Island), Sheldon McClellan (Miami), Chasson Randle (Stanford), D’Angelo Russell (Ohio State), Marcus Thornton (William & Mary), Rashad Vaughn (UNLV) and Joseph Young (Oregon).
Single game tickets are available at the Murnane Family Ticket Center. For more information, call 574-631-7356 or visit www.UND.com/BuyTickets. For breaking news and information, fans can follow Notre Dame Men’s Basketball all season on twitter (@NDmbb).