Iowa Basketball: Why Luka Garza should win National Player of the Year
By Brian Rauf
1) Historic production
From a pure statistics perspective, no one can match Garza’s production throughout the season. The 6-11, 260-pounder finished fifth nationally in scoring (23.9 points per game) and 35th in rebounding (9.8 per game).
His diverse skill set was also nearly impossible to stop, as the junior was the only player in the country to score at least 700 points, make at least 35 three-pointers, grab at least 300 rebounds, and record more than 50 blocks. In fact, he’s just the fourth player do reach all of those marks in the one-and-done era, joining Kevin Durant, Michael Beasley, and Frank Kaminsky. Durant and Kaminsky both won National Player of the Year, while Beasley finished second behind Tyler Hansbrough.
Garza raised his level of play as the season went on as well, recording 26.2 points and 9.7 rebounds per game in conference play, and those scoring numbers were the best any Big Ten player had recorded in 26 years (Glenn Robinson, Purdue). Considering the Big Ten was clearly the best conference in the country this past season, that means something.
Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg, fresh off a coaching stint with the Chicago Bulls, praised Garza’s well-rounded game following Iowa‘s victory over the Cornhuskers on February 8.
"“Luka Garza is as good a player as there is in the country right now. He obviously has a skillset; you can’t stop him in the paint when he gets an angle. He carves out space as well as anybody I have seen at this level. He is able to step out and knock down the three, but the thing I like most is his intensity, effort, and relentlessness and it is a good lesson for our young players to go out there and play with that type of effort every possession.”"
Producing at a high clip is certainly a pre-requisite for this award, so the simple fact that Garza played really well doesn’t necessarily differentiate him from someone like Toppin. But the level Garza produced at is something very few college basketball players have ever been able to achieve, and that includes Toppin.