• Lute Olson Award Website
Murray State sophomore
Ja Morant has been named the Lute Olson National Player of the Year by CollegeInsider.com.
The Lute Olson Award is named after the Hall of Fame coach at Arizona and Iowa and is given annually to the nation's top Division I player. Morant becomes the second Racer to win the award after Cam Payne took home the honor in 2015.
The honor also included a spot on the Lute Olson All-American Team, the 13th All-American honor of the season for Morant joining first-team honors from the Associated Press, Basketball Times, Bleacher Report, CBS Sports, NABC, Sports Illustrated, USBWA and the Wooden Award and second-team honors from NBC Sports, Sporting News, Stadium and USA TODAY Sports.
Morant earned first-team consensus All-American honors from the NCAA for being selected by the AP, NABC, Sporting News and USBWA. Overall Morant is the third OVC student-athlete to earn first-team consensus All-American honors joining Western Kentucky's Clem Haskins (1967) and Jim McDaniels (1971).
Morant has been announced as one of four finalists for the Oscar Robertson Trophy and the Naismith Trophy which are each given to the National Player of the Year. He is also one of five finalists for the Bob Cousy Award, given to the nation's top point guard.
Morant, the OVC Player of the Year, led Murray State to a 28-5 overall and 16-2 OVC record, a share of the OVC regular season championship and the program's second-straight and record 17th OVC Tournament Championship. He guided the Racers to an 83-64 win over No. 5 seed Marquette in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament; that marked the second-biggest win for a No. 12 seed over a No. 5 seed in tournament history.
Morant finished the season with 331 assists, the sixth-most in NCAA single-season history. He averaged 24.5 points and 10.0 assists/game making him the first player to average 20/10 in a season since the NCAA began to officially recognize assists in 1983-84.
Morant's 10.0 assists/game was 2.3 assists/game more than second place. He also ranked eighth nationally in scoring (24.5 points/game), ninth in double-doubles (20) and 83rd in steals (1.76/game). He recorded three triple-doubles (including only the ninth in NCAA Tournament history), which led the country (he was one of only two people with multiple triple-doubles in 2018-19).
Morant had 15 games this year with 20-plus points and 10-plus assists; no other player nationally has three such games.
His 18 assists in a game against UT Martin are the most by a Division I player this year and the second-most in OVC single-game history. His 20 double-doubles are just four off the nation's lead and he is the only player in the top 25 nationally in double-doubles under 6'6" tall.
In January Morant became the first Division I player in 20 years to record 40 points, 11 assists and five steals in a regulation game (doing so vs. SIUE). In that contest he hit 21-of-21 free throws, establishing a new OVC single-game record (just three off the NCAA mark); he was the first Division I player with 21 or more made free throws in a game without a miss in the past 20 years.
He was named MVP of the OVC Tournament after averaging 32.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists/game while hitting 55.4 percent from the field and 79.2 percent from the free throw line. He had 29 points, eight assists and six rebounds in a semifinal win over Jacksonville State, including converting a traditional three-point play in the final 10 seconds to give him team the win. He followed that with 36 pointss, seven rebounds and three assists in a title game win over Belmont. Those two wins helped MSU avenge its only two OVC losses of the season.
Morant had 17 points, 16 assists and 11 assists in the First Round NCAA Tournament win over Marquette, marked just the ninth triple-double in NCAA Tournament history (since assists became an official stat in 1983-84). The 16 assists tied a first round NCAA record and were the second-most ever in a NCAA Tournament game.
Ja Morant 2019 All-American Teams
Associated Press: 1st Team
Basketball Times: 1st Team
Bleacher Report: 1st Team
CBS Sports: 1st Team
Lute Olson: 1st Team
NABC: 1st Team
Sports Illustrated: 1st Team
USBWA: 1st Team
Wooden: 1st Team
NBC Sports: 2nd Team
Sporting News: 2nd Team
Stadium: 2nd Team
USA Today: 2nd Team