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A former Hopkinsville Tiger is among the candidates for the top award for defensive play this college basketball season. The Atlanta Tipoff Club announced Thursday that Western Kentucky’s Jamarion Sharp had been named to the watch list for the 2023 Naismith Men’s Defensive Player of the Year.
Sharp is one of just four players from outside the Power Five on the list and is one of four players to be named to the list in both 2022 and 2023, joining Oscar Tshiebwe (Kentucky), Kevin McCullar (Texas Tech/Kansas), and Trayce Jackson-Davis (Indiana). Sharp joins former WKU All-American Charles Bassey as the only Hilltopper to ever be named to the watch list or semi-finalist list as Sharp was also a semi-finalist in 2022.
As of Wednesday, Sharp, who stands 7-5 leads the nation in blocked shots per game at 4.3 and total blocks with 81. His 81 total blocks are more than what 75% of Division I programs have logged as a team.
The players named to the Naismith Men’s Defensive Player of the Year 2023 Watch List are:
Chase Audige, Northwestern
Leaky Black, North Carolina
Mousa Cisse, Oklahoma State
Jaylen Clark, UCLA
Zach Edey, Purdue
Andre Jackson Jr., UConn
Trayce Jackson-Davis, Indiana
Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton
Caleb McConnell, Rutgers
Kevin McCullar Jr., Kansas
Shakeel Moore, Mississippi State
Marcus Sasser, Houston
Jamarion Sharp, Western Kentucky
Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky
Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee
— Courtesy WKU Athletics
