INDIANAPOLIS – Gonzaga's Corey Kispert was named First Team All-American by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) Wednesday. Jalen Suggs and Drew Timme were selected second team.
 
Zags' head coach Mark Few was named one of four finalists for the Henry Iba Award, which is given annually by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association to its national coach of the year. Baylor's Scott Drew, Michigan's Juwan Howard and Alabama's Nate Oats were the other finalists. Few won the Henry Iba Award in 2017 following a 32-1 regular season and will try to become just the ninth coach to win the award multiple times. Drew, Howard and Oats would be first-time winners. The award is based on regular-season performance and the winner of the award will be announced on Friday. The Henry Iba Award is named in honor of the legendary coaching great at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) who won two NCAA championships and two gold medals and one silver as coach of the U S. Olympic teams.
 
Few has coached the Bulldogs from the top spot in the national polls all season and led Gonzaga to its first unbeaten regular season in program history (26-0) with a ninth straight West Coach Conference regular-season title. He earned his 14th WCC Coach of the Year honor and this week also garnered the USBWA District IX Coach of the Year honor. Gonzaga placed four players on the All-WCC First Team and three Bulldogs – Kispert, Suggs and Timme – are USBWA All-Americans contending for multiple national honors. Joel Ayayi was the other all-conference player, marking the fourth time in WCC history for one team to have four first team members. Gonzaga, also the WCC Tournament champion, has won 25 or more games in 14 consecutive seasons and faces either Norfolk State or Appalachian State in the NCAA Tournament's first round Friday.
 
Suggs was named one of four finalists for the 2020-21 Wayman Tisdale Award. Suggs, Oklahoma State guard Cade Cunningham, Michigan center Hunter Dickinson, and USC forward Evan Mobley are the contenders for the National Freshman Player of the Year. The winner of the award will be announced March 23. The USBWA has chosen a national freshman of the year award since the 1988-89 season. It was named the Wayman Tisdale Award in honor of the late three-time USBWA All-American at Oklahoma and the first freshman to receive first-team All-America honors from the USBWA.
 
Suggs is the point guard on the country's only undefeated team and the NCAA Tournament's overall No. 1 seed at Gonzaga (26-0). The West Coast Conferences' Newcomer of the Year is a defensive threat and assist leader who also shoots 50.5 percent from the field. Suggs leads the WCC in steals per game (2.0) and is fourth in assists (4.48 pg) and field goal percentage (50.5 percent) and is 11th in scoring (14.0). He was the WCC Freshman of the Week 10 times this season and has 16 double-doubles. He's dished out at least five assists in 12 games and has three or more steals in seven games. Suggs is the first freshman among Gonzaga's 11 all-time All-Americans.
 
Among the first-teamAll-American selections, Illinois' Ayo Dosunmu, Iowa's Luka Garza and Kispert are the finalists for the Oscar Robertson Trophy, presented to the national player of the year by the USBWA. The winner of the award will be announced April 1 in a virtual event in conjunction with the Final Four in Indianapolis, the hometown of Oscar Robertson.
 
The USBWA has named an annual All-America team since its founding season of 1956-57 and a national player of the year since the 1958-59 season. This is the third straight year that the USBWA has honored 15 players on three All-America teams; it had previously honored 10 players on a first and second team beginning in the 1984-85 season, except for a 15-man team in the 1997-98 season. The USBWA named its national player of the year award in honor of the legendary Oscar Robertson in the 1997-98 season. "The Big O" won the USBWA's first two national player of the year awards.
 
Kispert is the District IX Player of the Year and the top shooter among a trident of All-Americans at Gonzaga, the first school to place three members on the full All-America team. The West Coast Conference Player of the Year and Oscar Robertson Trophy finalist leads the league in scoring at 19.3 points per game, shooting 55 percent from the field and is second in the WCC making 2.72 treys per game while shooting 44.7 percent, also fifth in the nation. He leads the league in free throw shooting as well at 89.4 percent. Kispert has scored in double-digits in all but one game for Bulldogs, the No. 1 seed in the West Region who face either Norfolk State or Appalachian State in the first round Saturday. Gonzaga is 120-10 in games he's appeared in. Kispert is Gonzaga's 11th overall All-American and its sixth in the last three seasons, including second-teamers Timme and Suggs on this year's team. The Zags have had at least one All-American in three straight seasons (five in that span) and in four of the last six.
 
Timme, a power forward, was second in the WCC in scoring (18.9), shooting a league-leading 65.4 percent from the field, fourth in the nation. He scored in double digits in 24 of Gonzaga's 26 games with a team-high 11 20-point games.
 
The U.S. Basketball Writers Association was formed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. With some 900 members worldwide, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball.
 
2020-21 USBWA MEN'S ALL-AMERICA TEAM
FIRST TEAM
Jared Butler, Baylor
Cade Cunningham, Oklahoma State
**Ayo Dosunmu, Illinois
**Luka Garza, Iowa
**Corey Kispert, Gonzaga
 
** Oscar Robertson Trophy finalists
 
SECOND TEAM
Kofi Cockburn, Illinois
Hunter Dickinson, Michigan
Evan Mobley, USC
Jalen Suggs, Gonzaga
Drew Timme, Gonzaga
 
THIRD TEAM
Charles Bassey, Western Kentucky
Chris Duarte, Oregon
Trayce Jackson-Davis, Indiana
Colin Gillespie, Villanova
Quentin Grimes, Houston