2020 Naismith Awards To Be Announced On CBS Sports HQ April 1-3

ATLANTA, March 31, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time in the history of the Naismith Awards, which are administered by the Atlanta Tipoff Club, the Citizen Naismith Trophy Player of the Year, the Werner Ladder Naismith Coach of the Year and Naismith Defensive Player of the Year winners will be announced live on CBS Sports HQ, the 24/7 streaming sports news network.

Aliyah Boston (South Carolina), Aari McDonald (Arizona), DiDi Richards (Baylor) and Kylee Shook (Louisville) were named Naismith Women's Defensive Player of the Year finalists by the Atlanta Tipoff Club, and Marcus Garrett (Kansas), Ashton Hagans (Kentucky), Tre Jones (Duke) and Mark Vital (Baylor) are the men's finalists. The winners of the Naismith Defensive Men's and Women's Player of the Year will be announced live on April 1, at 12 p.m. ET on CBS Sports HQ, which is available for free at CBSSports.com and on the CBS Sports app for mobile and connected TV devices.

The Werner Ladder Naismith Coach of the Year finalists include Scott Drew (Baylor), Brian Dutcher (San Diego State), Anthony Grant (Dayton) and Leonard Hamilton (Florida State) for the men's honor and Adia Barnes (Arizona), Kelly Graves (Oregon), Joe McKeown (Northwestern) and Dawn Staley (South Carolina) for the women's. The winners of the Werner Ladder Naismith Men's and Women's Coach of the Year Awards will be announced live on CBS Sports HQ on April 2, at 12 p.m. ET.

The finalists for the Citizen Naismith Trophy, recognizing the most outstanding college basketball player, include Udoka Azubuike (Kansas), Luka Garza (Iowa), Myles Powell (Seton Hall), Payton Pritchard (Oregon) and Obi Toppin (Dayton) and Lauren Cox (Baylor), Tyasha Harris (South Carolina), Rhyne Howard (Kentucky) and Sabrina Ionescu (Oregon) for the Women's Citizen Naismith Trophy. On April 3, at 12 p.m. ET on CBS Sports HQ, the winners of the Citizen Naismith Trophy will be unveiled.

"While the season ended prematurely, we still want to honor these finalists appropriately and announce the winners on a national platform," said Eric Oberman, executive director of the Atlanta Tipoff Club.  "We are grateful to our friends at CBS Sports HQ for providing such an amazing platform to captivate the college basketball audience one last time this season."

The finalists for the Werner Ladder Naismith Coach of the Year and Citizen Naismith Trophy were selected by the Atlanta Tipoff Club's national voting academy, comprised of leading journalists from around the country, current and former head coaches, former award winners and conference commissioners, all of whom base their selections on outstanding on-court performances during the 2019-20 regular college basketball season. The national voting academy is voting for the winners, and the Naismith Awards fan vote will account for 5% of the overall vote. The vote will be tabulated and certified by Aprio, a premier, CPA-led business advisory firm. The Naismith Defensive Players of the Year finalists were chosen by the Atlanta Tipoff Club's board of selectors, comprised of leading national journalists from around the country.

To view the full release or for more information, visit www.naismithtrophy.com.  

SOURCE Atlanta Tipoff Club