Iowa men’s basketball’s Keegan Murray named first-team All-Big Ten

Murray is the first Iowa player since Ronnie Lester in 1978 to earn first-team all-conference honors as a sophomore.

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Grace Smith

Iowa forward Keegan Murray goes up for a layup during a basketball game between Iowa and No. 6 Purdue at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City on Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022. The Boilermakers defeated the Hawkeyes, 83-73. Murray shot 4-11 in field goals.

Robert Read, Pregame Editor


Iowa men’s basketball forward Keegan Murray was unanimously named first-team All-Big Ten by the conference’s coaches and media members on Tuesday, becoming the program’s first sophomore to earn the honor since Ronnie Lester in 1978.

Murray did not extend the program’s streak of having the Big Ten Player of the Year to three straight seasons, however. That honor went to Wisconsin’s Johnny Davis. Murray averaged 23.3 points per game in the regular season, the most of any player in a power conference. The 6-foot-8, second-year Hawkeye also led Iowa with 8.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game while shooting 55.4 percent from the floor and 38 percent from the 3-point line.  Davis averaged 20.0 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game for the co-Big Ten Champion Badgers.

The first-team All-Big Ten selections consisted of Murray, Davis, Illinois’ Kofi Cockburn, Purdue’s Jaden Ivey, and Ohio State’s E.J. Liddell.

An Iowa players has earned first-team All-Big Ten honors seven times in the last nine years, starting with Devyn Marble (2014) and continuing with Aaron White (2015), Jarrod Uthoff (2016), Peter Jok (2017), and two-time Big Ten Player of the Year Luka Garza (2020, 2021).

Sixth-year guard Jordan Bohannon was the only other Hawkeye to be honored by the Big Ten, earning honorable mention All-Big Ten recognition.