Tommy Lloyd projected that January would be a big month for Brayden Burries in terms of his growth and development, and he wasn’t wrong. The freshman has become Arizona’s go-to scorer, one who can also make big plays defensively, and he’s putting his name in the conversation for Big 12 Player of the Year.
For now, though, he’ll have to settle for a couple weekly awards from the league.
Advertisement
Burries has been named Big 12 Player and Newcomer of the Week after his performances in road wins over BYU and ASU. He joins fellow freshman Koa Peat in having won both awards this season, though not in the same week.
Last Monday’s 86-83 win at BYU saw Burries score a career-high 29 points but he also had the game-saving blocked shot in the final seconds. On Saturday at ASU he scored 17 and for the week averaged 23 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 2.5 steals and a block.
Burries leads the UA in scoring (15.3), averaging 17.2 points per game in Big 12 play on 52 percent shooting.
Bradley added to Cousy watch list
After going for 27 points against defending national champion Florida in the season opener, Lloyd questioned how the Naismith Hall of Fame could have left Jaden Bradley off its preseason watch list for the Bob Cousy Award, given to college basketball’s top point guard.
Advertisement
“I’ve been doing this for a while, and then they don’t make them much better than this,” Lloyd said in November.
The midseason Top 10 for the Cousy Award was released on Monday, and the preseason omission has been rectified. Bradley is on there, one of four point guards from the Big 12 along with Texas Tech’s Christian Anderson, Houston’s Kingston Flemings and Iowa State’s Tamin Lipsey.
Bradley is having a tremendous senior season, averaging 13.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and 4.5 assists while shooting 50.5 percent from the field, 44.4 percent from 3 and 81.6 percent at the line. In Big 12 play he’s averaging 14.6 points.
He has has several big second-half performances this season, including 21 at UCF and 17 at TCU, earning him a “closer” label for his play down the stretch.
Advertisement
Arizona has never had a Cousy Award winner, though it has won other Hoophall player awards. Stanley Johnson won the first Julis Erving Award in 2015 for best small forward and Deandre Ayton won the Karl Malone Award in 2018 for best power forward.
Peat was on the preseason watch list for the Malone Award while Burries was on there for the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award. Those midseason lists will come out later this week.
