Announced on Tuesday, USC men's basketball guard Julian Jacobs is one of 10 finalists for the Jerry West Award given annually to the nation's best shooting guard. The junior averages 12.1 points, 5.9 assists and 5.1 rebounds per game this season with three different types of double-doubles including one with points and rebounds (12 points, 10 rebounds at UC Santa Barbara), one with points and assists (10 points, 13 assists vs. Cal Poly) and one with rebounds and assists (11 rebounds, 10 assists vs. CSUN). Not only is Jacobs a tremendous shooting guard, but his 5.9 assists per game average leads the Pac-12 and he ranks third in assist to turnover ratio (2.4) for the conference. His rebounds per game average is the third-best on the Trojan roster, and he's second on the team in dunks for the season with 22.Click here for a full release on Jacobs' nomination.
Jacobs joins nine other finalists including Grayson Allen (Duke), Malcolm Hill (Illinois), A.J. English (Iona), Sheldon McClellan (Miami), Caris LeVert (Michigan), Buddy Hield (Oklahoma), Jalen Jones (Texas A&M), Josh Hart (Villanova) and Malcolm Brogdon (Virginia). The top five finalists will be announced sometime in early March, while the winner will be announced at the Naismith Hall of Fame College Basketball Awards show at Club Nokia in Los Angeles on April 8. Since this is only the second year of the award, Jacobs is USC's first-ever Jerry West Award finalist.
