Swanigan Named NABC’s Pete Newell Award Winner
PHOENIX, Ariz. – Caleb Swanigan was named the recipient of the Pete Newell Award given to the nation’s top post player, the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) announced this evening at Final Four festivities in Phoenix.
The award is named after Pete Newell, coach who ran the Pete Newell Big Man Camp for low-post players from 1976 until his death in 2008.
Purdue is now 1-of-3 teams (Purdue, Utah and Duke) to win the Pete Newell Award twice after JaJuan Johnson received the honor following the 2010-11 season. A Boilermaker has won the award twice in the last seven seasons.
Past recipients include David West (Xavier), Emeka Okafor (UConn), Michael Beasley (Kansas State), Blake Griffin (Oklahoma) and Anthony Davis (Kentucky).
Swanigan has already been named a consensus All-American and is a finalist for the Wooden and Malone Awards to be handed out next week, which will cap off the awards season for the Purdue sophomore.
Swanigan led the Boilermakers to a 27-8 overall record, a berth in the Sweet 16 and Purdue’s 23rd Big Ten championship. The Boilermakers’ title was their 10th outright league title, winning the Big Ten regular-season championship by two full games.
Swanigan recorded one of the top statistical seasons in not only Purdue history, but NCAA history, en route to first-team honors. Swanigan averaged 18.5 points, 12.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game while shooting 52.7 percent from the field, 44.7 percent from 3-point range and 78.1 percent from the free throw line.
He is the only major-college player (and one of two players total) to record 600 points, 400 rebounds and 100 assists in a season (Towson’s Jerrelle Benimon in 2013-14). He joins legendary Tim Duncan of Wake Forest (1996-97 season) as the only players in the last 25 years to average at least 18.5 points, 12.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists in a season.
Swanigan is the only player in the last 31 years (since the 1985-86 season) with at least 640 points, 430 rebounds and 100 assists.
His 28 double-doubles were the most for a player in Big Ten history and 13th most for a player in NCAA history, leading the country in that category. He set Purdue’s single-season rebounds record by almost 100 rebounds (436; Joe Barry Carroll is second with 352) and recorded 10 more double-doubles than any player in Purdue history.