The University of Oklahoma's Buddy Hield won the James Naismith Trophy as the nation's top college basketball player.
The Atlanta Tipoff Club made the Sunday, one day after Hield was held to just nine points in the Sooners' 95-51 loss to Villanova University in Saturday evening's Final Four matchup.
2016 Naismith Men's College Player of the Year!! pic.twitter.com/8rPOBLCRT8
— Oklahoma Basketball (@OU_MBBall) April 3, 2016
The Sooners had trouble hitting shots, and Villanova kept changing which players guarded Hield. The Wildcats hit more than 71 percent of their second-half shots en route to the most lopsided victory in Final Four history. It was also the worst loss by OU’s basketball team since 1975. But ESPN’s C.L. Brown writes Hield’s storied career won’t be definied by his final blowout loss:
He’ll be remembered more for the small gestures he made behind the scenes, things such as hopping out of the golf cart while an NCAA representative assigned to drive him to the locker room waited for him to do a TV interview for a Bahamas tourist channel. Despite feeling his lowest in terms of basketball after Saturday's game, Hield still had the inclination to stop for a “pound and hug” handshake with a well-wisher before he entered the media scrum waiting to engulf him at his locker. “People enjoyed watching the way he played the game, the enthusiasm, the joy that he played it with,” Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger said. “Obviously, you know, great, great shooter, made shots, got good results on the floor. But I think even more than that, they liked the way he went about it with that passion and enthusiasm.”
Hield is the two-time Big 12 Player of the Year, and averaged 25 points per game this year, and joins Blake Griffin as the only Sooner to earn the Naismith Award. Griffin won the prize in 2009 after leading OU to the Elite Eight. The Sooners lost in the regional final to eventual national champions North Carolina, and Griffin declared for the NBA draft. The Los Angeles Clippers selected the Oklahoma City native as the first overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft.
The U.S. Basketball Writers Association presented Hield with the Oscar Robertson Trophy. Hield narrowly missed out on the Associated Press Player of the Year Award, finishing second to Michigan State University’s Denzel Valentine.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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