Morris, Niang on preseason watch lists

Arcidiacono and Brunson are the only pair of teammates on the Cousy watch list among the 20 early candidates for the honor.

KU forward Perry Ellis is on the Karl Malone Award Watch List for the nation’s top power forward, while Frank Mason III is on the Bob Cousy Award Watch List for the nation’s top point guard.

Koenig started the final 24 games for UW last season and averaged 11.5 points and 2.7 assists during that stretch.

Sophomore guard James Blackmon Jr. was named to the watch list for the 2016 Jerry West Award, which honors the nation’s top shooting guard. He was unanimously named first team all-conference and picked up All-Metropolitan and NABC All-Region honors.

Hayes is the Badgers top returning scorer. Smith-Rivera, who had nine games last season with at least 20 points, became the 45th player in program history to reach the 1,000-point mark for his career and finished his junior season ranked 18th all-time at Georgetown with 1,386 points.

The watch list was created by a national committee of college basketball personnel.

Hayes previously was named a preseason All-American by the Sporting News.

The awards are presented by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

The award is named after Hall of Famer and former Boston Celtic and Holy Cross guard Bob Cousy. Past year the award went to Utah senior Delon Wright.