Florida shooting guard Scottie Lewis was named to the Jerry West Award watch list.
The award is given annually to the nation’s best shooting guard. Lewis is among 20 players nationwide on the award’s preseason watch list. The list is compiled by a national committee presented by the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Lewis averaged 8.5 points per game in his freshman season. Defense was where Lewis thrived.. The Hazlet, New Jersey, native averaged over a block and a steal per game in the 2019-20 season. In Florida’s last game of the season against Kentucky, for example, UK guard Immanuel Quickley had Lewis on him most of the game.
Quickley, who averaged 16 points per game and had gone ten straight games scoring 15 or more, was held to just 12 against the Gators.
The committee may also believe in Lewis’s potential in his second year on the offensive end. His shooting slowly progressed as the season wore on last year. Lewis put up more shots and at a more effective rate. That showed through the last few games.
Lewis scored double-digit points in three of Florida’s last four games before the COVID-19 pandemic cut the season short. That included a 19-point outing in the Gators’ one-point loss to Kentucky to finish the regular season.
The only Gator before Lewis placed on the preseason watch list was KeVaughn Allen in 2017. Allen mainly made the list because of his offensive skill set. Lewis, however, shines on the other end of the court.
Allen averaged 14 points per game the season before, being instrumental in UF’s Elite 8 run in 2016.
The award was established in 2015, past winners are Myles Powell (Seton Hall, 2020), RJ Barrett (Duke, 2019), Carsen Edwards (Purdue, 2018), Malik Monk (Kentucky, 2017), Buddy Heild (Oklahoma, 2016) and D’Angelo Russell (Ohio State, 2015).
Sophomore guard Scottie Lewis at last year's game against Arkansas. Lewis was named to an exclusive preseason watchlist Tuesday.
