Arizona Wildcats big man Deandre Ayton has won the 2018 Karl Malone Award, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced Friday.
The award is given to the nation’s top power forward. Ayton is the first Wildcat to win the award, which was introduced in 2015.
He beat out Marvin Bagley III (Duke), Nick King (Middle Tennessee), Luke Maye (North Carolina) and Mike Daum (South Dakota St.) for the award.
Ayton recorded one of the most dominate seasons in Pac-12 history.
The freshman phenom averaged 20.