Tennessee basketball’s Chaz Lanier won the Jerry West Award on Saturday afternoon. The award is given annually to the nation’s best shooting guard.
Lanier beat out Arizona’s Caleb Love, Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe, Memphis’ PJ Haggerty and Texas’ Tre Johnson to win the top shooting guard award in the nation.
A 6-foot-4 shooting guard, Lanier transferred to Tennessee from North Florida last offseason and turned in one of the better seasons in program history. Lanier averaged 18 points and 3.9 rebounds per game while helping lead the Vols to the Elite Eight for just the third time in program history.
Lanier broke Tennessee’s single-season three-point record, knocking down 123 three-pointers. He did it an efficient rate too, making 39.5% of his attempts from deep. Program legend Chris Lofton previously held the top three spots in the rankings including the top-spot with 118 made three-pointers in the 2007-08 season.
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The Nashville, Tennessee native ranked fourth nationally in made three-pointers and none of the players ahead of him were on teams that made the NCAA Tournament. Along with Mississippi State’s Josh Hubbard and Florida’s Walter Clayton, Lanier was one of just three players in the SEC to make 100-plus three-pointers last season.
The Jerry West Award was created ahead of the 2014-15 season, making Lanier the 11th every player and the first Tennessee player to win the award. Lanier joins an elite group to earn the honor including Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield, Houston’s Marcus Sasser and North Carolina’s RJ Davis last season.
Lanier is just the second player from the SEC to win the award along with Kentucky’s Malik Monk who claimed the honor in 2017.
It’s the second straight season that a Tennessee player has won a major college basketball award. Dalton Knecht won the Julius Irving Award, given annually to the nation’s best small forward, last season. The Vols ability to land transfers and those players have major success not only at the SEC but national level has been incredibly impressive and is a major testament to Rick Barnes and his staff.
