BOSTON — Virginia Tech men's basketball redshirt-senior Keve Aluma has been named to the preseason watch list for the 2022 Lute Olson Award, as announced Thursday.
The award, which is presented annually to the top player in division I college basketball, is named in honor of Hall of Fame coach Lute Olson, who won 776 games in 34 seasons, 24 of which were spent at the University of Arizona.
Aluma is one of five ACC players on the preseason watch list, including Armando Bacot from North Carolina, Paolo Banchero from Duke, Buddy Boeheim from Syracuse and Mark Williams from Duke. He was named to the Karl Malone Award watch list on Oct. 21.
Since following head coach Mike Young to Tech, Aluma has started in all 22 games he played during the 2020-2021 season. The Berlin, Maryland native earned Second-Team All-ACC, First-Team NABC All-District II, USBWA All-District III Team, ACC Player of the Week twice, Naismith Trophy National Player of the Week and ESPN National Player of the Week last season. Aluma averaged 15.2 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 30.6 minutes per game last year.
The Hokies will tip-off the 2021-22 season at home in Cassell Coliseum on Nov. 9 at 8 p.m. against Maine. The game will be streamed on ACCNX.
