Courtesy of LehighSports.com
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh men’s basketball senior Tim Kempton has been named to the watch list for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award, as announced on Friday. Kempton is one of just 20 players in the nation named to the list, with 16 of them coming from power-conference teams. The award is named after Hall of Famer and three-time NCAA Champion Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. A national committee comprised of top college basketball personnel determined the watch list candidates.
Among those honored were student-athletes from schools like Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Syracuse and Texas. Kempton has established himself as one of the nation’s premier players at his position. A two-time Patriot League Player of the Year and honorable mention All-American, Kempton’s numbers have increased each and every season at Lehigh.
As a freshman, Kempton averaged 13.0 points and 7.1 rebounds to earn Patriot League Rookie of the Year laurels. He went on to average 15.3 points and 8.7 boards as a sophomore then 17.7 points and 9.5 rebounds as a junior. Kempton posted 13 double-doubles last season, good for 47th nationally, including a stretch of eight double-doubles in nine games which helped spring Lehigh to its 11-game winning streak. Kempton was named an NABC first team All-District honoree as both a sophomore and junior, and was also named the team’s Athlete of the Year each of the last two seasons.
Kempton will enter his senior season 14th nationally in career points with 1,390. He also owns 762 career rebounds, which already stands top 10 in Patriot League history.
By mid-February, the watch list of 20 players for the 2017 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award will be narrowed down to just 10. In March, five finalists will be presented to Mr. Abdul-Jabbar and the Hall of Fame’s selection committee. The winner of the 2017 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award will be presented at the ESPN College Basketball Awards Show in Los Angeles, Calif. on Friday, Apr. 7, 2017. Broadcast information will be released at a later date.
Lehigh is hard at work at practice leading into the 2016-17 season opener at Xavier on Nov. 11, a No. 2 seed in last season’s NCAA Tournament. The Mountain Hawks then travel to another NCAA team from a season ago in Yale before hosting Princeton, who is coming off an NIT berth. Lehigh also faces Mississippi State, Arkansas State and La Salle to wrap up a challenging November slate.
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2017 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award Candidates
Moses Kingsley Arkansas
Eric Mika Brigham Young University
Justin Patton Creighton
Marques Bolden Duke
Zena Edosomwan Harvard
Thomas Bryant Indiana
Bam Adebayo Kentucky
Tim Kempton Lehigh
Omer Yurtseven North Carolina St.
Chris Boucher Oregon
Isaac Haas Purdue
Pascal Chukwu Syracuse
Jarrett Allen Texas
Tyler Davis Texas A&M
Thomas Welsh University of California, Los Angeles
Kennedy Meeks North Carolina
Luke Kornet Vanderbilt
Mo Alie-Cox Virginia Commonwealth University
Josh Hawkinson Washington St.
Ethan Happ Wisconsin
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