Luka Garza named Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year
Garza earned conference Player of the Year status after a dominating junior season in 2019-20.
Iowa center Luka Garza attempt to push past Illinois forward Giorgi Bezhanishvili during a men’s basketball game between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Illinois Fighting Illini on Sunday, February 2, 2020. The Hawkeyes defeated the Fighting Illini 72-65.
November 9, 2020
Iowa men’s basketball player Luka Garza has been named the 2020-21 Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year, the conference announced Monday.
Garza and fellow Hawkeye Joe Wieskamp were named to the 10-player Preseason All-Big Ten Team, with Garza being a unanimous selection. Iowa and Illinois were the only teams to have multiple players recognized on the list.
The 2019-20 Big Ten Player of the Year, Garza dominated last season as a junior. The Washington, D.C., native was named National Player of the Year by six national outlets after averaging 23.9 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks per game last season.
Garza also earned consensus first-team All-American status and was the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar award winner as the center of the year.
The 6-foot-11, 265-pounder averaged 26.2 points per game in 20 conference games last season, becoming the first player to average at least 26 points in Big Ten play since Purdue’s Glenn Robinson in 1994 (31.1 ppg). Garza scored 20 or more points in a school-record 16 straight games, the longest streak by any player in the Big Ten since 1987. Garza’s 740 points on the season broke the program’s 50-year-old single-season scoring record.
Garza opted to return for his senior year as a Hawkeye rather than entering the NBA Draft.
Wieskamp was a third-team All-Big Ten player for Iowa last season. As a sophomore, he ranked second on the team in points per game (14) and rebounds per game (6.1). The Muscatine, Iowa, native ranked first in the Big Ten in free throw accuracy (.856).
Below are the Big Ten Conference’s preseason honorees ahead of the start of the 2020-21 men’s basketball season.
2020-21 BIG TEN PRESEASON PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Luka Garza, Iowa
2020-21 MEN’S BASKETBALL PRESEASON ALL-BIG TEN TEAM
Kofi Cockburn, Illinois
AYO DOSUNMU, Illinois
Trayce Jackson-Davis, Indiana
LUKA GARZA, Iowa
Joe Wieskamp, Iowa
Aaron Henry, Michigan State
Marcus Carr, Minnesota
Trevion Williams, Purdue
Geo Baker, Rutgers
Nate Reuvers, Wisconsin
Unanimous selections in ALL CAPS
