Johnson & Mayo Up for Malone Award

(St. Louis, MO) – Missouri Valley and Ohio Valley Conference players have been nominated for the ‘Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award‘. Missouri State’s Alize Johnson and Eastern Kentucky’s Nick Mayo were two of 21 players named to the ‘watch list’ for the prestigious award.

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is the sponsor of this and several other college basketball national awards. The Malone award is named after former Louisiana Tech star and two-time NBA MVP Karl Malone. A national committee decided on the watch list.

Other awards sponsored by the Naismith Hall are the Bob Cousy (point guard), Jerry West (shooting guard), Julius Erving (small forward) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (center) awards. The watch lists for all but the Abdul-Jabbar awards have been announced.

Former MVC players and current Wichita State stars Landry Shamet (Cousy) and Markis McDuffie (Erving) have been nominated in their respective categories.

Johnson was a Valley all conference player of the year and the ‘Newcomer of the Year‘ while leading the league in rebounding (10.6 per game) and averaging 14.8 points per game.

EKU’s Mayo is a two-time all-OVC player and was the league’s ‘Freshman of the Year‘ (2016). Last year he finished fifth in the OVC in scoring at 18.5 points per game while grabbing 6.5 rebounds.

For more on the process and the other nominees go to ncaa.com.

(Editor: Johnson will face fellow Malone nominee Mike Daum of South Dakota State on December 2, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a game that can be seen on the MSU TV Network)