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College Football

Sporting News names Iowa’s Luka Garza, Michigan head coach Juwan Howard national award winners

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

It’s awards season with the college basketball regular season now behind us. And a lot of honors are pouring in for players and coaches in the B1G.

On Tuesday, Sporting News announced the award winners for National Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year and Coach of the Year for the 2020-21 season. Two of those honors are headed to the B1G.

Iowa star Luka Garza has been named the National Player of the Year by Sporting News. The senior averaged 23.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.6 blocks this season, while the Hawkeyes ended the year with a 20-7 record. He also shot 55% from the floor, 43% from 3-point range and 70.6% from the free throw line.

Garza ended the season with 12 double-doubles. He’s also the all-time leading scorer in Iowa men’s basketball history, passing Roy Marble for the honor earlier in the year. Following Iowa’s win over Wisconsin on Sunday, the school announced it would be retiring Garza’s No. 55.

This marks the second-straight season Garza has received the honor from Sporting News. The only other college player to accomplish that feat? Michael Jordan (North Carolina).

https://twitter.com/sportingnews/status/1369317677253136389?s=21

Michigan head coach Juwan Howard was named the winner of the National Coach of the Year by Sporting News. The second-year head coach led his alma mater to a regular season B1G title, the program’s first since 2014.

The Wolverines ended the season with a 19-3 record, which included a 14-3 mark in B1G play. Michigan locked up the No. 1 seed in the B1G Tournament and is still in contention for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Sporting News also announced that Oklahoma State’s Cade Cunningham was the Freshman of the Year.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB