Evan Turner became the first Buckeye to win the Big Ten's Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year Award since Blaine Wilson (gymnastics) in 1997.
From the conference release:
Turner becomes the first Ohio State basketball player to earn the Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year Award and the third Buckeye in any sport to take home the trophy. A junior guard from Chicago, Turner racked up a slew of national accolades, winning the Wooden Award, Naismith and Oscar Robertson trophies as well as being named National Player of the Year by the Associated Press, Basketball Times, National Association of Basketball Coaches and Sporting News. The conference’s consensus Player of the Year, Turner was the Most Outstanding Player of the Big Ten Tournament and was named to a litany of All-America teams. He set a Big Ten record with 10 career Player of the Week selections, including seven in 2009-10. In his junior campaign, Turner led the Big Ten with 20.4 points and 9.2 rebounds per game, ranking second with 6.0 assists per contest. With the performance, he became the only player in Ohio State history to tally over 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 400 assists and 150 steals in a career. He recorded 16 double-doubles in 2009-10, including five consecutive to open the season, giving him 27 in his career. He also became one of just 34 players in NCAA Division I history to record multiple triple-doubles in a season, accomplishing the feat on Nov. 9 and Nov. 24, 2009.How do you follow-up a prestigious award like this, you ask? By going in the top three of tomorrow night's NBA Draft, of course.
