After finishing the regular season as the NCAA Division I leader in assists, St. Louis junior point guard Yuri Collins was recognized on Monday as one of five finalists for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s Bob Cousy Award.
The Cousy Award is given annually to the top point guard in NCAA Division I. Fan Voting for the award begins on Friday, March 10, at hoophallawards.com
Yuri certainly fits the bill.
The Bradley Beal Elite alum finished the regular season with 304 assists, clearing second place by 58 dimes, and was the only Division-I player to average double digit assists, with a whopping 10.1 assists per game. The next best assist numbers (246 assists/7.9 apg) belong to Tyler Kolek of Marquette, who is also a finalist for the award. Markquis Nowell (Kansas State), Boo Buie (Northwestern) and Jalen Pickett (Penn State).
Earlier this season, Yuri broke the Atlantic-10 single season assist record and the conference career assist record. Paired with his 11.3 points per game, Yuri is the lone D-1 player to average a points/assists double-double. He was also selected to the All-Atlantic-10 First Team and All-Atlantic-10 Defensive Team, both for the second time in as many seasons. He is the third St. Louis Billiken to earn back-to-back first-team All-Conference honors, joining Dwayne Evans (2013 and 2014) and his former teammate and fellow BBE Alum Jordan Goodwin (2020 and 2021).
If Yuri can finish the season with both his assist and scoring averages in double digits, he would become just the fifth player in NCAA history to finish a season averaging double-digits in both categories.
St. Louis finished the regular season third place in the Atlantic-10 and will begin play in the conference tournament on Thursday, March 9th.
