The
Bob Cousy Award presented by The Hartford (or
Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award) is an annual
basketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the top men's
collegiateCollege athletics refers primarily to sports and athletic competition organized and funded by institutions of tertiary education . In the United States, college athletics is a two-tiered system. The first tier includes the sports that are sanctioned by one of the collegiate sport governing bodies...
point guardPoint guard , also called the play maker or "the ball-handler", is one of the standard positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position – essentially, he is expected to run the team's offense by controlling the ball and making sure that...
. It is named after six-time
National Basketball AssociationThe National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
(NBA) champion
Bob CousyRobert Joseph "Bob" Cousy is a retired American professional basketball player. The 6'1" , 175-pound Cousy played point guard with the National Basketball Association's Boston Celtics from 1951 to 1963 and briefly with the Cincinnati Royals in the 1969–70 season...
, who played point guard for the
Boston CelticsThe Boston Celtics are a National Basketball Association team based in Boston, Massachusetts. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. Founded in 1946, the team is currently owned by Boston Basketball Partners LLC. The Celtics play their home games at the TD Garden, which...
from 1951 to 1963. Cousy won six championships with the Celtics.
Annually, a list of player is nominated by college head coaches, members of College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), and members of the
National Association of Basketball CoachesThe National Association of Basketball Coaches , headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, is an American organization of college men's basketball coaches...
(NABC). A screening committee of CoSIDA members reviews the nominations, and selects 16 players from each division (12 from
National Collegiate Athletic AssociationThe National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
(NCAA) Division I, and two each from Division II and III). A selection committee appointed by the Hall then selects the winner. This 30-member committee is composed of Hall of Famers, head coaches,
sports information directorA sports information director is a type of public relations worker who provides statistics, team and player notes and other information about a college or university's sports teams to the news media and general public...
s, the media, and Cousy himself.
Since its inception in 2004, the award has been given to eight players. The first winner was
Jameer NelsonJameer Nelson is an American professional basketball player for the Orlando Magic of the NBA. He played college basketball at Saint Joseph's University and was drafted in the first round of the 2004 NBA Draft by the Denver Nuggets but was traded to the Orlando Magic, where he has played for his...
from
Saint Joseph's UniversityThe Saint Joseph's Hawks men's basketball team represents Saint Joseph's University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Its home court is the Hagan Arena. The team's only Final Four appearance in 1961 was removed from the NCAA records due to a gambling scandal. Through...
. The most recent winner was
Kemba WalkerKemba Hudley Walker is an American professional basketball player for the Charlotte Bobcats. Walker grew up in The Bronx, New York and graduated from Rice High School in 2008. With the Huskies basketball team at Connecticut, Walker was the 2nd leading college basketball scorer in the United States...
from the
University of ConnecticutThe Connecticut Huskies is the name of the men's college basketball team representing the University of Connecticut, in Storrs, Connecticut, USA. The program is classified in the NCAA's Division I, and the team competes in the Big East Conference...
. When
Maryland'sThe Maryland Terrapins men's basketball team represents the University of Maryland in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I competition...
Greivis VasquezGreivis Vásquez is a Venezuelan basketball player with the Memphis Grizzlies, who selected him in the first round of the 2010 NBA Draft. He was chosen after a stellar U.S. college career with the University of Maryland men's basketball team...
won the award in 2010, the
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
n became the first player born outside the U.S. to receive this award.
Winners
| * |
Awarded a national Player of the Year award:
the Naismith College Player of the YearThe Naismith College Player of the Year is an annual basketball award given by the Atlanta Tipoff Club to the top men's and women's collegiate basketball players. It is named in honor of the inventor of basketball , Dr. James Naismith....
or the John R. Wooden AwardThe John R. Wooden Award is an award given annually to the most outstanding men's and women's college basketball players. The program consists of the men's and women's Player of the Year awards, the Legends of Coaching award and recognizes the All–America Teams.The awards, given by the Los...
|
| Player (X) |
Denotes the number of times the player has been awarded the Bob Cousy Award |
| Season |
Player |
School |
Class |
| 2003–04 The 2003–04 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 10, 2003, progressed through the regular season and conference tournaments, and concluded with the 2004 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament Championship Game on April 5, 2004 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas...
|
* |
Saint Joseph's The Saint Joseph's Hawks men's basketball team represents Saint Joseph's University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Its home court is the Hagan Arena. The team's only Final Four appearance in 1961 was removed from the NCAA records due to a gambling scandal. Through...
|
|
2004–05The 2004–05 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 10, 2004, progressed through the regular season and conference tournaments, and concluded with the 2005 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament Championship Game on April 2, 2005 at the Edward Jones Dome in Saint Louis,...
|
|
North CarolinaThe North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball program is the intercollegiate men's basketball of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is considered one of the most successful programs in NCAA history...
|
|
2005–06The 2005–06 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 6, 2005, progressed through the regular season and conference tournaments, and concluded with the 2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament Championship Game on April 3, 2006 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana...
|
|
IllinoisThe Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team is an NCAA Division I college basketball team competing in the Big Ten Conference. Home games are played at Assembly Hall, located on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's campus in Champaign....
|
|
| 2006–07 |
|
Texas A&MThe Texas A&M Aggies men's basketball team represents Texas A&M University in NCAA Division I college basketball. The Aggies play home games at Reed Arena, a 12,500-capacity arena in College Station, Texas on the campus of Texas A&M University....
|
|
| 2007–08 |
|
Texas The Texas Longhorns men's basketball team represents The University of Texas at Austin in NCAA Division I men's basketball competition. The Longhorns currently compete in the Big 12 Conference....
|
|
2008–09The 2008–09 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 10, 2008 and ended with the 2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament's championship game on April 6, 2009 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. The season saw six different teams achieve the AP #1 ranking during the...
|
|
North CarolinaThe North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball program is the intercollegiate men's basketball of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is considered one of the most successful programs in NCAA history...
|
|
| 2009–10 The 2009–10 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 9, 2009, and ended with the 2010 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament's championship game on April 5, 2010 on the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The opening round occurred on Tuesday, March 16, 2010, followed by first...
|
|
MarylandThe Maryland Terrapins men's basketball team represents the University of Maryland in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I competition...
|
|
| 2010–11 The 2010–11 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 8, 2010 with the preliminary games of the 2010 Coaches Vs. Cancer Classic, and ended with the 2011 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament's championship game on April 4, 2011 at Reliant Stadium in Houston...
|
|
ConnecticutThe Connecticut Huskies is the name of the men's college basketball team representing the University of Connecticut, in Storrs, Connecticut, USA. The program is classified in the NCAA's Division I, and the team competes in the Big East Conference...
|
|
Winners by school
| School | Winners | Years |
| North Carolina |
2 |
2005, 2009 |
ConnecticutThe admission rate to the University of Connecticut is about 50% and has been steadily decreasing, with about 28,000 prospective students applying for admission to the freshman class in recent years. Approximately 40,000 prospective students tour the main campus in Storrs annually...
|
1 |
2011 |
IllinoisThe University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
|
1 |
2006 |
MarylandThe University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
|
1 |
2010 |
Saint Joseph'sSaint Joseph's University is a private, coeducational Roman Catholic Jesuit university located partially in the Wynnefield section of Philadelphia and partially in Lower Merion Township and located in the Pennsylvania Main Line, Pennsylvania, United States.The school was founded in 1851 as Saint...
|
1 |
2004 |
TexasThe University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
|
1 |
2008 |
Texas A&MTexas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...
|
1 |
2007 |
See also
- Nancy Lieberman Award
The Nancy Lieberman Award, named for Basketball Hall of Fame legend Nancy Lieberman, is given annually by the Rotary Club of Detroit to the nation's top collegiate point guard in women's Division I basketball...
– the counterpart to the Bob Cousy Award; given to the nation's top NCAA female point guard.
External links