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Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He’ll offer up insights every morning on Brad Underwood’s team and college basketball at large:
Will Kylan Boswell have the ball in his hands a lot this season for Illinois? It’s safe to assume the answer is yes. Will he be fine letting Mihailo Petrovic or Keaton Wagler be the Illini “point guard” this season? Another yes.
That’s apparently how the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame sees it, too, considering Boswell was named as one of 20 players to the preseason watch list for the Jerry West Award. That would be the award meant to honor the best shooting guard in college basketball.
The past five winners of the Jerry West Award, in order, were Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier, North Carolina’s RJ Davis, Houston’s Marcus Sasser, Wisconsin’s Johnny Davis and Oregon’s Chris Duarte. The award has been presented 11 times previously, with Purdue’s Carsen Edwards (2018) and Ohio State’s D’Angelo Russell (2015) also winning out of the Big Ten.
This year’s list of preseason honorees includes:
- Brayden Burries, Arizona
- Richie Saunders, BYU
- Josh Dix, Creighton
- Isaiah Evans, Duke
- Xaivian Lee, Florida
- Emanuel Sharp, Houston
- Kylan Boswell, Illinois
- PJ Haggerty, Kansas State
- Otega Oweh, Kentucky
- Ryan Conwell, Louisville
- Seth Trimble, North Carolina
- Anthony Roy, Oklahoma State
- Jason Edwards, Providence
- Ian Jackson, St. John’s
- Solo Ball, UConn
- Rodney Rice, USC
- Mason Falslev, Utah State
- Malik Thomas, Virginia
- Wesley Yates III, Washington
- John Blackwell, Wisconsin
Boswell started 34 games last year in his first season at Illinois and averaged 12.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists. He hit double figures in scoring 24 times and played his best basketball at the end of the season when he put up 16.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and four assists per game in his last eight games.
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