Long Beach State University Athletics
Casper Ware named candidate for Bob Cousy Award
12/20/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 20, 2010
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., has announced the candidates for the 2011 Bob Cousy Award and Long Beach State junior Casper Ware is one of the 66 players who have been nominated. The Bob Cousy Award recognizes college basketball's top point guard.
Ware (Cerritos, Calif./Gahr HS) is averaging 14.8 points, 6.25 assists, and 2.08 steals per game, while making 38.6 percent of his field goals, 34.9 percent of his threes and 81 percent of his free throws. He leads the Big West Conference in assists, while ranking 16th in the nation. He is also second in the league in both steals and assist-to-turnover ratio, and is seventh in scoring. Ware has scored in double-figures in 10 of Long Beach State's 12 games, including a career-best 22 points twice. He has also handed out at least five assists in 10 of LBSU's 12 games, including games with 10, nine and eight (twice).
Ware has started 73 of Long Beach State's 75 games since playing as a true freshman during the 2008-09 season. He is averaging 11.2 points and 4.7 assists during his three-year career. He already ranks sixth in career assists and ninth in career steals at Long Beach State and is just 157 points shy of scoring 1,000 career points. He earned second-team All-Big West Conference honors and was named to the all-tournament team after the Big West Conference tournament as a sophomore, while also being named to the Big West Conference All-Freshman Team his first year at LBSU. Ware claimed a spot on this year's Preseason All-Big West Conference First Team.
The original list of candidates will be narrowed down to the final 20 by January 3, the final 10 by February 3 and the final five by March 3. The winner of the 2011 Bob Cousy Award will be presented at the Hall of Fame's Class Announcement on Monday, April 4, in Houston as part of NCAA Final Four weekend.
