Iowa's Garza named Big Ten's top player for second straight year; Wieskamp on second team

Iowa center Luka Garza earned a second consecutive Big Ten Conference men's basketball player of the year award Tuesday.

That came on the heels of being named back-to-back national player of the year winner by The Sporting News, the first basketball player to do that since Michael Jordan at North Carolina.

Garza, a senior, is the Hawkeye men's team's all-time leading scorer with 2,201 points. His No. 55 will be retired by the university at the end of the season.

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Garza said this summer that he returned for one final season with the goal of winning a team championship, noting that he'd already piled up enough individual awards. He has the No. 6 Hawkeyes sitting at 20-7 with a No. 3 seed in the Big Ten tournament this week in Indianapolis. Iowa has won seven of its past eight games.

Garza is the first Hawkeye to win two Big Ten player of the year awards. The honor was first handed out in 1985. Only Ohio State’s Jim Jackson in 1991-92 and Michigan State’s Mateen Cleaves in 1998-99 have previously won back-to-back. Garza leads the nation in total points (642), an average of 23.8 per game. He averaged 21.9 per game during the 20-game conference schedule. He was the third player since 1990 to lead the league in scoring in consecutive seasons (joining Michigan State’s Steve Smith and Evan Turner of Ohio State).

Garza wasn't the only Hawkeye honored Tuesday, in voting by media members who cover Big Ten teams and the 14 coaches.

Junior wing player Joe Wieskamp, of Muscatine, was named second-team all-Big Ten. He is second on the Hawkeyes in scoring (15 points per game) and rebounding (6.6). He leads the Big Ten in 3-point accuracy, making 49.5 percent of his attempts (51-of-103) in league play. Wieskamp was a third-team all-conference honoree a year ago.

Earlier:Joe Wieskamp ready to seize his moment as Iowa Hawkeyes' leading man

Senior point guard Jordan Bohannon was named honorable mention all-Big Ten, along with sophomore shooting guard CJ Fredrick. Bohannon is Iowa's career leader in 3-pointers made (355) and assists (625) after coming out of Linn-Mar High School five years ago. The 3-pointers also rank second in Big Ten history.

Fredrick is averaging 10.5 points per game, with 48 assists against only six turnovers.

Forward Keegan Murray, a Cedar Rapids native, was named to the Big Ten's all-freshman team. Murray has started four games and been a key reserve in the 23 others. He is Iowa's leading scorer (7.8) and rebounder (5.5) off the bench in Big Ten play.

Fredrick was also the Iowa selection on the Big Ten's sportsmanship team.

Joining Garza on the all-Big Ten first team, in voting by the media, were Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn of Illinois, Trayce Jackson-Davis of Indiana and freshman Hunter Dickinson of Michigan. Michigan's Juwan Howard was named coach of the year after leading the Wolverines to the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten tournament.

Iowa opens Big Ten tournament play at 8 p.m. Friday, against either Wisconsin, Penn State or Nebraska. The Hawkeyes went 4-0 against those teams in the regular season.

Mark Emmert covers the Iowa Hawkeyes for the Register. Reach him at memmert@registermedia.com or 319-339-7367. Follow him on Twitter at @MarkEmmert.