TUCSON, Ariz. - The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced today the 20 watch-list members for the 2023 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award and Arizona's Oumar Ballo was among the honorees. 

Named after Class of 1995 Hall of Famer and three-time NCAA Champion Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the annual honor in its ninth year recognizes the top center in men's college basketball. A national committee of top college basketball personnel determined the watch list of 20 candidates.

Ballo appeared in all 37 games during the 2021-22 season, his first with the Wildcats, and averaged 6.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.2 blocked shots per game while shooting 62.2% from the floor. He contributed 44 blocked shots to Arizona breaking the school record for blocks in a season and earned Pac-12 Sixth Man of the Year honors from HoopsHD.com.

Fans are encouraged to participate in Fan Voting, presented by Dell Technologies, in each of the three rounds starting today. In late January, the watch list of 20 players for the 2023 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award will be narrowed to 10 and then in late February to just five. In March the five finalists will be presented to Abdul-Jabbar and the Hall of Fame's selection committee where a winner will be selected. 

The winner of the 2023 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award will be presented on a to be determined date, along with the other four members of the Men's Starting Five. Additional awards being presented include the Bob Cousy Award (Point Guard), Jerry West Award (Shooting Guard), Julius Erving Award (Small Forward) and the Karl Malone Award (Power Forward), in addition to the Women's Starting Five.

Previous winners of the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award are Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky (2022), two-time winner Luka Garza, Iowa (2020-21), Ethan Happ, Wisconsin (2019), Angel Delgado, Seton Hall (2018), Przemek Karnowski, Gonzaga (2017), Jakob Poeltl, Utah (2016) and Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin (2015).

2023 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award Candidates*

Charles Bediako	Alabama	Moussa Cissé	Oklahoma State
Oumar Ballo	Arizona	Kel'el Ware	Oregon
PJ Hall	Clemson	Zach Edey	Purdue
Ryan Kalkbrenner	Creighton	Clifford Omoruyi	Rutgers
Dereck Lively II	Duke	Fardaws Aimaq	Texas Tech
Colin Castleton	Florida	Adem Bona	UCLA
Osun Osunniyi	Iowa State	Adama Sanogo	UConn
Oscar Tshiebwe	Kentucky	Branden Carlson	Utah
Hunter Dickinson	Michigan	Jamarion Sharp	Western Kentucky
Armando Bacot	North Carolina	Jack Nunge	Xavier

 *Players can play their way onto and off the list at any point in the 2022-2023 season*

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