Wake Forest Junior PG Bryant Crawford Named to 2018 Bob Cousy Award Watch List

Wake Forest junior Bryant Crawford has been vastly underrated by the ACC and national media during his first two years in Winston-Salem, but the press is coming, and should be coming quickly.

The first bit of publicity for Crawford was released today as he was one of twenty point guards nationally named to the Bob Cousy Award Watch List, which is presented to the best point guard in the nation at the end of the year.

He is one of five point guards from the ACC named to the list, joining: Joel Berry II (UNC), Trevon Duval (Duke), Quentin Snyder (Louisville), and Matt Farrell (Notre Dame).

Overall it is a very impressive list of point guards:

Crawford averaged 16.2 points per game and 5.5 assists per game last year as a sophomore, and also aded 3.5 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game. He was one of just six major conference players to achieve at least 15 PPG, 5 APG, 3 RPG, and 1 SPG.

Despite the impressive numbers Crawford was relegated to an Honorable Mention in the ACC postseason voting.

It is likely that Crawford will be asked to bear a heavier load this season with John Collins off to the NBA. While Chaundee Brown will chip in a bit to that workload, it would not surprise me at all to see Crawford’s points per game get over the 17 mark.

In order to become a finalist for this award Crawford will need to find somebody to replace Collins in the pick-and-roll, and work on his catch-and-shoot percentage, which is where he struggled last year. There is no doubt that he is very good when in Isolation sets, but consistency in shooting will be huge for his continued development into an All-ACC caliber player.