Joe Wieskamp named Jerry West Award Finalist
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced on Tuesday the five finalists for the 2021 Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award.
The five finalists for the 2021 Jerry West Award are University of Iowa junior Joe Wieskamp, MaCio Teague (Baylor), Joel Ayayi (Gonzaga), Quentin Grimes (Houston), and Chris Duarte (Oregon).
Wieskamp is the second Hawkeye in five years to be a finalist for the Jerry West Award (Peter Jok, 2017).
Named after Hall of Famer and 1959 NCAA Final Four Most Valuable Player Jerry West, the annual honor in its sixth year recognizes the top shooting guards in Division I men’s college basketball. Fans can vote for Wieskamp at hoophallawards.com.
Wieskamp (6-foot-6, 212 pounds) ranks second on the team in scoring (15.3 ppg) and rebounding (6.9 rpg). The native of Muscatine, Iowa, ranks second in the Big Ten in 3-pointers made per game (2.43), and fifth in defensive rebounds per game (5.65). He leads all players in 3-point accuracy in Big Ten games only, making 50.6 percent of his attempts (41-of-81).
He has scored in double figures 19 times this season and reached the 1,000-point plateau on Jan. 20, 2021. Wieskamp, who ranks ninth in career 3-pointers (167) at Iowa, is the first Hawkeye junior in school history to amass 1,100+ points, 500+ rebounds, 150+ 3-pointers, 100+ assists, and 75+ steals. He has led or shared the team lead in scoring in four of the last eight contests.
Wieskamp is averaging 18.8 points and nine rebounds during Iowa’s current four-game win streak. He is shooting the basketball at an extremely high level, making 55 percent of his field goal attempts (26-of-47) and a blistering 64 percent from 3-point range (16-of-25) during the winning streak.
Wieskamp was the Big Ten Player of the Week on Feb. 15, after averaging 23.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, two assists, and one steal in a pair of double-digit wins over No. 25 Rutgers and Michigan State. He shot a combined 59 percent from the field (16-of-27), including a blistering 71 percent from 3-point range (10-of-14) in the two wins.
The winner of the 2021 Jerry West Award will be presented on ESPN. Additional information about the award presentation, including date and time, will be released in the coming weeks.
Wieskamp and the ninth-ranked Hawkeyes (17-6, 11-5) will face No. 3 Michigan (16-1, 11-1) on Thursday. Tipoff is set for 6:01 p.m. (CT) at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan.