Gonzaga’s Drew Timme, Chet Holmgren named to NABC Player of the Year watch list

Both members of Gonzaga vaunted frontcourt were named to the preseason watch list for the 2021 NABC Division I Player of the Year on Thursday morning.

Junior Drew Timme and freshman Chet Holmgren were two of the 20 players named to the watch list on Thursday. Gonzaga was one of four schools to place multiple players on the list, joining UCLA, Kansas and Purdue.

Timme, considered by many to be the preseason national player of the year in college basketball is also a preseason All-American first-team selection after winning the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year award last season. He was first-team All-West Coast Conference in 2020-21 and named the NCAA Tournament West Regional Most Outstanding Player.

Holmgren was the Gatorade National Player of the Year and won similar honors from four other organizations while earning McDonald’s All-American status as a senior. As a senior at Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis, the 7-foot Holmgren averaged 21 points and 12.3 rebounds per game while leading the school to its fourth consecutive state championship.

Joining Timme and Holmgren on the preseason list were Oral Roberts’ Max Abmas, Kansas’ Ochai Agbaji and Remy Martin, Duke’s Paolo Banchero, Syracuse’s Buddy Boeheim, Texas’ Marcus Carr, St. John’s Julian Champagnie, Illinois’ Kofi Cockburn, Michigan’s Hunter Dickinson, Villanova’s Collin Gillespie, Purdue’s Jaden Ivy and Trevion Williams, UCLA’s Jaimie Jaquez and Johnny Juzang, Ohio State’s E.J. Liddell, Vanderbilt’s Scotty Pippen Jr. and Alabama’s Jahvon Quinerly.