Oregon’s Chris Duarte Named Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award Finalist

Oregon senior Chris Duarte is one of five finalists for the Jerry West shooting guard of the year award, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced on Tuesday.

Duarte is averaging 16.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game in 2020-21. He’s also shooting well both from the floor (53 percent) and from deep (42 percent).

Duarte leads the Pac-12 in steals (2.1 per game) and three-pointers made (2.6 per game). Also, he’s just one of two players in the nation with at least 16 points, two steals and 50 percent shooting from the field.

The Dominican Republic native ranks in the top 10 of six statistical categories in the conference. He’s seventh in scoring, fifth in three-point percentage and ninth in overall field goal percentage.

Duarte has scored in double digits every game but one. He also has six games with at least 20 points.

This is the first time an Oregon player has been a finalist for the award, which has only been around since 2015.

Baylor’s MaCio Teague, Gonzaga’s Joel Ayayi, Houston’s Quentin Grimes and Iowa’s Joe Wieskamp are the other Jerry West award finalists.

The 2020-21 winner will be awarded on April 9.

D’Angelo Russell (2014-15), Buddy Hield (2015-16), Malik Monk (2016-17), Carsen Edwards (2017-18), RJ Barrett (2018-19) and Myles Powell (2019-20) are the past winners.

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