Mikal Bridges, Villanova; Angel Delgado, Seton Hall; Jalen Brunson, Villanova
Three MBB Standouts Win National Position Awards
After a 2017-18 hoops season that included Villanova winning the national championship and five other league squads receiving NCAA Tournament bids, BIG EAST players were winners of three of the top national position awards.
Villanova’s Jalen Brunson was named the winner of the Bob Cousy Award (point guard); Villanova’s Mikal Bridges won the Julius Erving Award (small forward) and Seton Hall’s Angel Delgado took the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award (center).
Brunson won every major Player of the Year award and became the consensus National Player of the Year. He won awards from: Associated Press, U.S. Basketball Writers, NABC and Sporting News along with the Naismith Trophy and Wooden Award. Additional BIG EAST players also were finalists for many of these awards. Among the 20 Wooden Award finalists, in addition to Brunson, was Bridges, Creighton’s Marcus Foster and Xavier’s Trevon Bluiett.
Butler’s Kelan Martin and Xavier’s Trevon Bluiett were among 10 finalists for the Jerry West Award (shooting guard).
Brunson is the second BIG EAST player to be the consensus Player of the Year in the five seasons of the current 10-team alignment. In 2014, Creighton’s Doug McDermott was the consensus National Player of the Year.
Brunson also earned consensus All-America First Team honors and Xavier’s Trevon Bluiett was consensus All-America Second Team.
Creighton’s Tyler Clement and Brunson were named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Team. Clement made the first team and Brunson was chosen for the second team. Clement has a 4.0 GPA in Finance/Marketing and Brunson has a 3.34 in Communications.