LOS ANGELES – Iowa State senior Georges Niang has been announced as the winner of the 2016 Karl Malone Award, presented annually to the nation’s top college basketball power forward by Basketball Hall of Fame. Niang was named the recipient of the award Friday evening on ESPN’s College Basketball Awards Show, which was held at Club Nokia in Los Angeles.
Niang, who has re-written the Iowa State record books, is the first Cyclone men’s basketball player to win an individual postseason award. He is the first two-time All-American in school history after earning second-team honors from the Associated Press, National Association of Basketball Coaches and the United States Basketball Writers Association.
Niang averaged 20.5 points and shot 54.6 percent from the field, 39.2 percent behind the arc and 80.7 percent at the free-throw line en route to earning consensus All-America honors in his final collegiate season.
The unanimous All-Big 12 First-Team selection was a dominant force on the offensive end, scoring in double figures in all 35 games and posting 17 games with 20 or more points.
He averaged 28.7 points in three NCAA Tournament games, becoming just the fifth player in tournament history to score 28 or more points in three consecutive games.
Niang finished second in the Big 12 in scoring and was the only player in the league to rank among the top-10 in rebounds and assists.
(Info from cyclones.com)