Gonzaga's Ryan Nembhard named finalist for Lute Olson Award

Mar. 13—Two days after winning his first West Coast Conference Tournament, Gonzaga's Ryan Nembhard was one of 30 players named a finalist for the Lute Olson Award, presented to the top player in college basketball.

CollegeInsider.com named its finalists on Thursday afternoon and will announce the 2025 recipient in San Antonio, Texas, during the NCAA Men's Final Four. The winner is determined by a 10-member voting committee, comprised of current and former coaches, along with two stadd members from CollegeInsider.com.

Nembhard is still leading the country in assists per game (9.8) and total assists (325) after helping the Zags beat San Francisco and Saint Mary's to capture the WCC title on Tuesday at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

With 14 assists during his stay the WCC Tournament, Nembhard now has a top-10 assist season in NCAA history and one of the top four seasons since 1988-89. The senior point guard needs eight more assists in the NCAA Tournament to tie Avery Johnson for fifth on the all-time list.

Nembhard surpassed his own Gonzaga single-season assist record and claimed the WCC single-season record from former Saint Mary's guard earlier in the season. The Ontario native also matched Blake Stepp's school record for most assists in a single game when he delivered 16 in Gonzaga's regular-season finale against San Francisco at the Chase Center.

Nembhard was named a Cousy Award semifinalist, earned All-WCC First Team honors for the second straight season, collected two WCC Player of the Week awards and earned spots on both the Wooden Top 20 watch list and Naismith Award Midseason Team.

Other Lute Olson Award finalists were Auburn's Johni Broome, Florida's Walter Clayton Jr., Houston's LJ Cryer, New Mexico's Donovan Dent, Kansas' Hunter Dickinson, Villanova's Eric Dixon, Duke's Cooper Flagg, Memphis' PJ Haggerty, Louisville's Chucky Hepburn, Illinois' Kasparas Jakucionis, Marquette's Kam Jones, Iowa State's Curtis Jones, Creighton's Ryan Kalkbrenner, Connecticut's Alex Karaban, Purdue's Trey Kaufman-Renn and Braden Smith, Tennessee's Chaz Lanier and Zakai Zeigler, St. Johns' RJ Luis Jr. and Kadary Richmond, Saint Marys' Augustas Marciulionis, Maryland's Deriq Queen, Stanford's Maxime Raynaud, BYU's Richie Saunders, Alabama's Mark Sears, West Virginia's Jevon Small, Wisconsin's John Tonje, Texas Tech's JT Toppin and Michigan's Danny Wolf.

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