Baylor MBB’s Vital Named to Karl Malone Award Watch List

[Kaye, David]

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – Nov. 5, 2019

Baylor MBB’s Vital Named to Karl Malone Award Watch List
Senior is one of 20 players on watch list for national power forward of the year
For more information contact: David Kaye, 254-709-5147, David_Kaye at baylor.edu<mailto:David_Kaye at baylor.edu>


SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Baylor men’s basketball senior Mark Vital has been named to the preseason watch list for the 2021 Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award, as announced Thursday by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.



The annual award is in its seventh year recognizing the top power forwards in Division I men’s basketball. A national committee of top college basketball personnel determined the 20 watch list candidates. Players can be added to the watch list throughout the season, and the list will be trimmed to 10 candidates in late January. Five finalists will be presented to Mr. Malone and the Hall of Fame’s selection committee in late February.



The 2021 Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award winner will be announced on April 9 along with the remaining members of the Men’s Starting Five, including the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year, Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year, Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year and the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year.



Vital is one of four Big 12 Conference players on the Karl Malone Award watch list, joining Oklahoma’s Brady Manek, West Virginia’s Oscar Tshiebwe and Texas’ Greg Brown. Vital could face three more watch list members during the regular season, with the Bears scheduled to face Gonzaga’s Drew Timme on Dec. 5 and potential matchups against Villanova’s Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Seton Hall’s Sandro Mamukelashvili earlier in the season.



Additional players on the watch list are Clemson’s Aamir Simms, Duke’s Matthew Hurt, Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis, Kentucky’s Isaiah Jackson, LSU’s Trendon Watford, Massachusetts’ Tre Mitchell, North Carolina’s Garrison Brooks, Ohio State’s Seth Towns, Saint Louis’ Hasahn French, Stanford’s Oscar da Silva, Tennessee’s John Fulkerson, Texas A&M’s Kevin Marfo and Wisconsin’s Nate Reuvers.



A three-year letterwinner from Lake Charles, La., Vital has played 96 games and made 75 starts over three seasons. He redshirted during the 2016-17 season, then made 18 starts as a freshman in 2017-18, 34 starts as a sophomore in 2018-19 and 23 starts as a junior in 2019-20.



Vital earned All-Big 12 Third-Team honors in 2019-20 and was a unanimous choice to the Big 12 All-Defensive Team. He was also one of four finalists for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year and was the captain of Seth Davis’ 21st-annual All-Glue Team. Vital averaged 6.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.7 steals and 0.6 blocks in 26.0 minutes per game as a junior.



Vital will look to follow former Bear Johnathan Motley, who won the 2017 Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award, becoming the first player in program history to win a major national individual award.



Vital joins Jared Butler (Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year) and MaCio Teague (Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year) on watch lists for Men’s Starting Five Awards.



The Bears open the 2020-21 season with a five-game, 14-day trip to play games against some of the nation’s top teams. BU will face two of three out of Villanova, Arizona State and Boston College in the 2K Empire Classic, then will take on a pair of to-be-announced high-major teams before wrapping up the trip against Gonzaga in Indianapolis. Baylor’s first home game is Dec. 8 at the Ferrell Center.


Baylor Athletics expects to open the season with 25 percent capacity in the Ferrell Center, and renewed season ticket holders will have exclusive priority. Additional information on the adjusted ticketing process has been provided by the Baylor Bear Foundation here<https://baylorbears.com/news/2020/10/28/mens-basketball-baylor-athletics-announces-2020-21-basketball-ticketing-plan.aspx>. Follow @BaylorMBB on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for updates throughout the year.

2021 KARL MALONE POWER FORWARD OF THE YEAR AWARD WATCH LIST

Mark Vital, Baylor

Aamir Simms, Clemson

Matthew Hurt, Duke

Drew Timme, Gonzaga

Trayce Jackson-Davis, Indiana

Isaiah Jackson, Kentucky

Trendon Watford, LSU

Tre Mitchell, Massachusetts

Garrison Brooks, North Carolina

Seth Towns, Ohio State

Brady Manek, Oklahoma

Hasahn French, Saint Louis

Sandro Mamukelashvili, Seton Hall

Oscar da Silva, Stanford

John Fulkerson, Tennessee

Greg Brown, Texas

Kevin Marfo, Texas A&M

Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Villanova

Oscar Tshiebwe, West Virginia

Nate Reuvers, Wisconsin


2020-21 BAYLOR MBB PRESEASON HONORS
Jared Butler
Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year
Preseason All-Big 12 Team (unanimous)
Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award Watch List

MaCio Teague
Preseason All-Big 12 honorable mention
Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award Watch List

Mark Vital
Preseason All-Big 12 honorable mention
Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Watch List



www.BaylorBears.com


--

David Kaye | Assistant AD for Communications
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
C: 254-709-5147

[signature_1912418843]
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/localmedia/attachments/20201105/06e64429/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 20333 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/localmedia/attachments/20201105/06e64429/attachment-0001.png>