Kentucky guard Sahvir Wheeler was tabbed to the Bob Cousy Award Top 10 on Monday. Wheeler leads the Southeastern Conference and ranks third nationally with 6.9 assists per game. He’s also averaging 10.8 points per game for the Wildcats.
Including Wheeler, the SEC led the country with four of the top 10 finalists for the Cousy Award which is in its 19th year.
Fans are encouraged to participate in the fan voting portion of the three rounds. In late February, the watch list of 10 players will be narrowed down to five. In March those finalists will be presented to Cousy and the Hall of Fame’s selection committee to choose the winner.
Wheeler first appeared on the Cousy Award’s preseason list and has now been selected as one of 10 finalists. Kentucky has had one player in program history earn the distinguished honor when Tyler Ulis won the award in 2016.
This is the second-consecutive season Wheeler is leading the SEC in assists after he paced the conference in both assists and assist-to-turnover ratio at Georgia last season. His 193 assists in 2020-21 broke Georgia’s previous single-season assists record by 24 dimes despite a shortened season.
Wheeler’s current rate of 6.95 assists per game is a shade behind Ulis’ 7.03 average when he set the UK single-season assists record in 2015-16 with 246 dimes. He entered the season ranked sixth among all returners nationally in career assists per game.
The Houston native had a breakout performance in a dominating win over North Carolina when he scored 26 points and added eight assists with four steals in the CBS Sports Classic. According to BigBlueHistory.net he became the first player in school history to post at least 26 points, at least eight assists and at least four steals in the same game.
He earned SEC Player of the Week accolades following the performance against the Tar Heels.
But that’s been far from his only standout performance. Wheeler has reached double-digit scoring in 11 games and has eight or more assists in nine games, including a career-high 14 in a win over North Florida.
After enduring a two-game absence as he recovered from a neck injury, Wheeler directed one of the best offensive performances in program history in a 107-79 win over No. 22 Tennessee.
Wheeler accounted for 21 points and dished out eight assists en route to leading the Wildcats to their most points scored against an Associated Press Top 25 team since 1994. It was also the most points the Volunteers had yielded in 15 seasons.
Furthermore, UK made 38 of 56 (67.9%) from the floor. That marked the highest field-goal percentage in any game for the Wildcats under John Calipari. Kentucky also became the first team to post a 60-60-90 shooting line in an SEC game in 25 years.
With Wheeler directing the offense, UK has scored 90 or more points in six games this season. That’s the most since having six such games in 2017-18.
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