LifeWallet Sports celebrates two of its athletes being named to the Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy Player of the Year list. Nijel Pack and Isaiah Wong are two of the fifty players named to the list out of all Division one schools across the nation. Miami is one of just nine schools with multiple players on the list. Other schools with multiple players include Baylor, Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, UCLA, and Wyoming.
The Naismith Trophy is an annual award given by the Atlanta Tipoff Club to the top men’s college basketball player. It is named in honor of Dr. James Naismith who invented the game of basketball.
“These 50 players represent the best that college basketball has to offer. We anticipate another fantastic season from these players as well as many more incredible athletes who may find themselves on our list as the season progresses,” said Eric Oberman, executive director of the Atlanta Tipoff Club. “Each of these players are great ambassadors for their team, universities, and college basketball.”
Pack is a 6-foot, 184-pound Junior who transferred to University of Miami from Kansas State. While at K State, Pack scored 17.4 points per game while shooting 45.5 percent from the floor. Pack was First Team All-Big 12 and Big 12 Most Improved Player last year.
Wong is a Preseason First Team All-ACC player and one of twenty players on the NABC Player of the year watch list. Last year Wong had an incredible year where he averaged 15.3 points per game and was Third Team All ACC for a second year in a row. In just three seasons, Wong is the twenty third Hurricane in program history to score 1,268 points.
The top ten national semifinalists will be named in March 2023 and four of those will move on for a chance to be the Naismith Player of the year. The winner will be announced in April 2023. Congratulations to both Nijel Pack and Isaiah Wong for being named to this prestigious list of college basketball players and we look forward to having the Player of the Year on the University of Miami campus.