Gonzaga’s Corey Kispert named AP first-team All-America; Drew Timme, Jalen Suggs on second team

Corey Kispert and his Gonzaga teammates collected a bunch of hardware Tuesday.

Kispert, a 6-foot-7 senior wing, was named to the Associated Press All-America first team. Sophomore forward Drew Timme and freshman guard Jalen Suggs were second-team selections. Junior guard Joel Ayayi was honorable mention. Top-ranked Gonzaga was the only program with four selections.

Kispert is GU’s fourth AP All-America first-teamer, joining Dan Dickau, Adam Morrison and Kelly Olynyk. The Zags have had at least one player receive AP All-America recognition for seven consecutive seasons and eight of the past nine.

Kispert was joined on the first team by Iowa’s Luka Garza, Illinois’ Ayo Dosunmu, Baylor’s Jared Butler and Oklahoma State’s Cade Cunningham. Garza was a unanimous selection of the 63 media members that also vote in the AP basketball poll. He made first team for the second straight year.

Kispert has been named first-team All-America by Sporting News and Sports Illustrated. The West Coast Conference player of the year averages 19.2 points on 54.4% shooting. He made a team-high 72 3-pointers with his 44.4% accuracy and ranks first in the WCC and fifth nationally.

Kispert has scored in double figures in 25 of 26 games. He’s scored at least 20 points 11 times.

The 6-10 Timme was second in the WCC at 18.7 points and third in rebounding at 7.1. His shooting percentage of 65.6 ranks fourth nationally. He scored in double digits in 25 games, including a career-high 29 versus Virginia.

The 6-4 Suggs paced the WCC in steals (1.96) and was fourth in assists (4.5) and field-goal percentage (51.2). He averaged 14.3 points and 5.5 boards. He was named the WCC Tournament’s most outstanding player after scoring a game-high 23 points against BYU in the championship game.

Second-team selections included USC’s Evan Mobley, Michigan’s Hunter Dickinson and Illinois’ Kofi Cockburn.

Ayayi, a finalist for the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year, averages 11.8 points and 7.0 rebounds. The latter is the most by a guard in program history. He’s second in the WCC in field-goal percentage (68.7) inside the arc and fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.05).

Third-team selections were Baylor’s Davion Mitchell, Houston’s Quentin Grimes, Loyola Chicago’s Cameron Krutwig, Alabama’s Herb Jones and Oregon’s Chris Duarte.

Kispert District IX player of year

Kispert was selected District IX player of the year and Mark Few was named coach of the year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA).

Kispert, Timme and Suggs were All-District IX selections. They were joined by Stanford’s Oscar DaSilva, Oregon’s Duarte and Eugene Omoruyi, Arizona State’s Remy Martin, San Diego State’s Matt Mitchell, USC’s Mobley and Pepperdine’s Colbey Ross.

District IX encompasses California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Arizona and Alaska.

NABC honors Few, Zags

Few was named District 9 coach of the year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).

Kispert, Timme and Suggs were first-team selections. They were joined by Pepperdine’s Ross and BYU’s Alex Barcello.

UC Santa Barbara’s JaQuori McLaughlin, Loyola Marymount’s Eli Scott, San Francisco’s Jamaree Bouyea, Pepperdine’s Kessler Edwards and UC Irvine’s Colin Welp made the second team.