Gonzaga's Anton Watson named to Julius Erving Award watch list

Fifth-year senior and Spokane native among 20 candidates in contention for top small forward award

The preseason honors continue to roll in for the Gonzaga men's basketball program, as Anton Watson was named to the Julius Erving Award watch list on Wednesday.

The fifth-year senior is among 20 candidates in contention for the nation's top small forward honor heading into the 2023-24 college basketball season.

Watson, who was one of three Bulldogs named to the preseason all-West Coast Conference team, was one of the most efficient two-way players in the WCC last season. He averaged a career-best 11.1 points on 60.8% shooting from the floor, second-best in the league, while snatching 66 steals. Gonzaga's "glue guy" had an even larger impact than traditional statistics will show.

The 6-foot-8 forward was graded as a top-three player in the country by EvanMiya's advanced metrics, which takes into account a player's individual efficiency statistics, along with his impact on the court for his team, which is assessed by looking at how successful his team was in every possession he played. Watson led the WCC in offensive rating (130.1) and was in the league's top five in box plus/minus (8.8). He was also among the conference's leaders in defensive rating (9th), defensive win shares (7th) and player efficiency rating (7th).

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Interestingly, Watson is being considered as a small forward, a position he didn't play much of last season. According to KenPom, he played 78% of his time on the court at the power forward position. A similar conundrum occurred with Drew Timme, who won the Karl Malone Award in 2020-21 and was considered for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award the following season.

With how much depth Gonzaga has in the frontcourt, it wouldn't be a surprise to see Mark Few play Watson at the "3" more often than he has in the past.

The watch list of 20 players will be condensed down to 10 players in late January before the five finalists are announced in February. The winner of the Julius Erving Award will be presented on a date to-be-determined.

Fans can vote starting Friday through Fan Voting, presented by Dell Technologies.

Here's the complete list of the Julius Erving Award candidates:

Anton Watson (Gonzaga)

Jaylon Tyson (Cal)

Baylor Scheierman (Creighton)

Tucker DeVries (Drake)

Mark Mitchell (Duke)

Payton Sandfort (Iowa)

Johnny Furphy (Kansas)

Arthur Kaluma (Kansas State)

Justin Edwards (Kentucky)

David Joplin (Marquette)

Matthew Cleveland (Miami Fla.)

Coen Carr (Michigan State)

Harrison Ingram (North Carolina)

Jamison Battle (Ohio State)

Glenn Taylor Jr. (St. John's)

Dalton Knecht (Tennessee)

Tyler Burton (Villanova)

Dillon Jones (Weber State)

Tyler Wahl (Wisconsin) 

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