Courtesy of WKU Athletics
DALLAS — WKU Hilltopper Basketball’s Charles Bassey has been named Conference USA
Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, the league announced Tuesday.
Bassey, a 6-foot-11 junior center from Lagos, Nigeria, is the first Hilltopper to
win a conference Player of the Year award since Orlando Mendez-Valdez in the Sun
Belt Conference in 2008-09. He’s the 15th overall Player of the Year in program
history.
Bassey joins Charlotte’s Eddie Basden (2005), Marquette’s Dwyane Wade (2003) and
Cincinnati’s Kenyon Martin (2000) as players in C-USA history to win the league’s
Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors in the same season.
He’s also one of five players in C-USA history – along with Martin, Basden, Memphis’
Joey Dorsey and UAB’s William Lee – to win Defensive Player of the Year multiple
times.
Bassey won his first C-USA Defensive Player of the Year award in 2019, when he was
also the league’s Freshman of the Year.
As of Monday, Bassey leads the nation in dunks and is ranked second in the country
in double-doubles, third in blocks per game, fourth in rebounds per game and total
rebounds, fifth in total blocks and eighth in field-goal percentage.
The junior is averaging 17.6 points, 11.8 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per contest while
shooting 61.1% from the field. He’s the only player in the nation since at least
2010 with four games in a season of at least 20 points, 14 rebounds and five
blocks.
Bassey has also produced his eye-popping numbers against top competition. WKU’s
non-conference strength of schedule was ranked 43rd in the country by the NET on
Monday.
In four games against West Virginia, Louisville, Alabama and Memphis, he averaged 19
points, 12.3 rebounds and 3.8 blocks.
Bassey was named Conference USA Player of the Week seven times this year, breaking
Kenyon Martin’s league record for most in a single season.
The award haul for Bassey is just the latest set of accolades for the standout
center, who’s spent the entire season in the national spotlight.
On Saturday, Bassey was named to the Wooden Award National Ballot, which consists of
15 student-athletes who are candidates for the Wooden Award All American Team and
Wooden Award Trophy as the most outstanding college basketball player in the United
States.
In addition to the Wooden Award, Bassey made the watch lists for the Naismith Trophy
and Lute Olson Award National Player of the Year.
He is also a semifinalist for Naismith Defensive Player of the Year and a top-five
finalist for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year award.
