Lincoln – University of Nebraska junior Terran Petteway was honored Wednesday, as he was named one of the 15 watch list members for the 2015 Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award, as announced by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The award is named after Hall of Famer and 11-time NBA All-Star Julius Erving, and the honor, which is in its first year, recognizes the top small forwards in Division I men’s college basketball. A national committee comprised of top college basketball personnel determined the watch list of 15 candidates.
Petteway has been one of the most prolific players in the Big Ten over the past two seasons. The 6-foot-6 junior from Galveston, Texas, enters Thursday’s game with Maryland averaging 18.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. He ranks third in the Big Ten in scoring while leading the Huskers in assists and ranking second in rebounding. He has had 12 20-point games this season, including a season-high 32 against Michigan State on Jan. 24, and has been in double figures in 24 of 25 games for the Huskers this season. Petteway, a first-team All-Big Ten performer in 2013-14, is the only Husker in school history to reach 1,000 career points in two years, as he is currently 26th in career scoring with 1,046 points. His career scoring average of 18.4 points per game at Nebraska would rank second in school history.
Petteway is one of four Big Ten players on the initial list, joining Branden Dawson (Michigan State), Denzel Valentine (Michigan State) and Sam Dekker (Wisconsin).
The current list of 15 candidates for the 2015 Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award will be narrowed down to five players in early March. The final five players in contention for the award will be presented to Mr. Erving and the Hall of Fame’s selection committee. The winner of the 2015 Julius Erving Award will be presented at ESPN’s new College Basketball Awards presented by Wendy’s from Club Nokia in Los Angeles on Friday, April 10, 2015.
2015 Julius Erving Award Candidates
Stanley Johnson, University of Arizona
Roosevelt Jones, Butler University
Justise Winslow, Duke University
Branden Dawson, Michigan State University
Denzel Valentine, Michigan State University
Terran Petteway, University of Nebraska
Pat Connaughton, University of Notre Dame
Le’Bryan Nash, Oklahoma State University
LaDontae Henton, Providence College
Anthony Brown, Stanford University
Jonathan Holmes, University of Texas
Vince Hunter, University of Texas, El Paso
Treveon Graham, Virginia Commonwealth University
Justin Anderson, University of Virginia
Sam Dekker, University of Wisconsin