Gonzaga Bulldogs junior Rui Hachimura is one of five finalists for the Julius Erving Award, which annually recognizes to the top small forward in college basketball.
He joins Marial Shayok from Iowa State, Caleb Martin from Nevada, Admiral Schofield from Tennessee, and De’Andre Hunter from Virginia.
The award should be considered Rui’s to lose. He leads all five nominees in points per game (20.6), rebounds (6.7), and field goal percentage (61.3). He also happens to be the leading scorer on the nation’s No. 1 offense, and was also the only one of the five to be named a Naismith Player of the Year semifinalist (although a legitimate argument can be made about the De’Andre Hunter absence).