Wyoming’s Larry Nance Jr. has been named a finalist for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s Karl Malone Award.

Named after Hall of Famer and two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Karl Malone, the annual honor in its inaugural year recognizes the top power forwards in NCAA Division I.

Despite missing the last three games with mononucleosis, Nance has helped the Cowboys to a 20-6 overall record. That includes a 9-4 mark in conference play, which is good for second in the Mountain West standings. He paces the Pokes at 16.3 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game.

On March 9th, the current list of 16 finalists will be narrowed down to five players. At that time a fan vote will be made available on the award’s official website HoopHallAwards.com, where fans can choose who they think should win. The player who wins the fan vote will receive one additional vote when the final five in contention for the award are presented to Malone and the Hall of Fame’s selection committee.

The winner of the Malone Award will be presented at ESPN’s new College Basketball Awards in Los Angeles, Calif., on April 10. The Awards will be televised live on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. ET.

For a few more details on this award, you can click here.

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