Louisville men’s basketball senior Peyton Siva has been selected as one of 20 watch lists finalists for the 2013 Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award, as announced by the Naismith Memorial Basketball of Fame Thursday.
The annual honor, named for Hall of Famer and former Boston Celtic Bob Cousy, recognizes the top point guards in men’s college basketball. Peyton was one of 85 players on the initial watch list, and is one of two Big East players to make the list of 20.
As a Louisville fan, it has been fun watching the progression of Peyton Siva. He has always been an excellent defender, and over the course of four seasons, his offense has evolved to the point where he is now a great point guard. He is averaging 11.5 points a game, grabbing 2.2 rebounds a game and is dishing out 6.1 assist a game. Seemingly, out of nowhere he has become a dependable three-point threat. Over the past 2 seasons, he made just 26 percent of his threes but now that he picks his spots and keeps a low number of attempts, he has increased that 10 percentage points to 36 percent. He has also become pretty much automatic from the charity stripe shooting 88% and that has increased by 27 percentage points over his 4 seasons. He has also become solid from the field averaging 43%. He is currently 15 points away from being the 64th Louisville player to score 1000 points. He is doing a much better job of protecting the ball averaging 6.1 assist to 2.7 turnovers a game and is currently only 4 assist away from being in a tie for second place for second most assist all time. Without Peyton that final four run last year would have been nonexistent and that was a defining moment for him. And if the Cards are to make a run at their 3rd national title in March it will be Peyton leading the way again. I hope he continues to have a great season and gets all the accolades that come along with it.
The watch list of candidates will be narrowed down to a final 10 in early February, and final five will be selected in early March. A selection committee has been appointed by the Hall of Fame to review the final five candidates in contention for the nation’s top collegiate point guard award. The winner of the 2013 Bob Cousy Award will be presented at the Hall of Fame’s Class Announcement on Championship Monday in Atlanta as part of NCAA Final Four weekend.
Previous winners of the Bob Cousy Award have included Jameer Nelson (St. Joseph’s), Raymond Felton (North Carolina), Dee Brown (Illinois), Acie Law (Texas A & M), DJ Augustin (Texas), Ty Lawson (North Carolina), Greivis Vasquez (Maryland), Kemba Walker (Connecticut) and last year’s recipient Kendall Marshall (North Carolina). For more information on the 2013 Bob Cousy, log onto www.CousyAward.com.
-2013 Bob Cousy Award Candidates
Jahii Carson, Arizona State
Pierre Jackson, Baylor
Quinn Cook, Duke
Kevin Pangos, Gonzaga
Keith Appling, Michigan State
Isaiah Canaan, Murray State
Kendall Williams, New Mexico
Lorenzo Brown, North Carolina State
Aaron Craft, Ohio State
D.J. Cooper, Ohio
Marcus Smart, Oklahoma State
Nate Wolters, South Dakota State
Michael Carter-Williams, Syracuse
Mark Lyons, Arizona
Ray McCallum, Detroit-Mercy
Trey Burke, Michigan
Andre Hollins, Minnesota
Phil Pressey, Missouri
Erick Green, Virginia Tech