Jalen Wilson Earns Julius Erving Award for Small Forward of the Year
This year’s college Dr. J. resides in Lawrence, Kan. The Kansas Jayhawks’ Jalen Wilson was tabbed The Basketball Hall of Fame’s Julius Erving Award winner this weekend, for the award given to the Small Forward of the Year, it was announced Saturday.
“I am very honored to receive this award,” Wilson said, via KU247’s Michael Swain. “Julius Erving is one of the greatest players of all time. I want to congratulate the other finalists on having great seasons. I want to thank Coach Self and the other coaches helping me become the player I am today. More importantly, I want to thank my teammates, my brothers, who pushed me every day. Though we did not achieve our ultimate goal, we did have a great season, winning the Big 12 in the toughest conference in the nation. Playing at Kansas is a blessing and winning this award represents KU as much as me.”
Wilson finished his career averaging 14.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game. That included career highs of 20.1 points, 8.3 boards and 2.2 assists during this award-winning campaign.
And any time you’re in the same discussion with Wilt Chamberlain, you’re in mighty good company. That’s exactly where Wilson is; in fact, he ended ahead of the former Jayhawks legend in the all-time scoring department, with 1,475 points.
Unfortunately, he and the top-ranked Jayhawks finished short of their ultimate goal of repeating during the 2022-23 season. They were bounced by Arkansas 72-71 in the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament.
