We’ve all seen it and now there’s no need to debate as Chris Duarte has officially been named the best college basketball shooting guard in America.
On Saturday afternoon, before the start of the Final Four games, Duarte was honored with the Jerry West Award which is given out annually (since 2015) to the best shooting guard in college basketball. He beat out the likes of MaCio Teague (Baylor) and Joel Ayayi (Gonzaga) who could end up battling it out for a national title on Monday night as well as Joe Wieskamp (Iowa) and Quentin Grimes (Houston).
Three out of the five finalists for the award made the Final Four and the fourth (Wieskamp) faced Duarte in the second round as he and the Ducks rolled Iowa.
Duarte was in just his second year with Oregon after transferring in from the JUCO ranks where he was an All-American and regarded as the best JUCO transfer on the market. His game clearly translated well to the Division 1 level.
How Chris Duarte stacks up against past winners
The first recipient of the Jerry West Award back in 2015 was Ohio State’s D’Angelo Russell who played just one season with the Buckeyes and averaged 19.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game. He shot 45 percent from the floor and 41 percent from deep and is currently in his sixth NBA season with the Minnesota Timberwolves after being drafted No. 2 overall in 2015.
Russell was followed up by Buddy Hield of Oklahoma who also won the national player of the year award and averaged 25 points and 5.7 rebounds while shooting over 50 percent from the floor and 45 percent from 3-point range. He was drafted sixth overall in 2016 and is in his sixth NBA season with the Kings.
Malik Monk won the award in 2017 when he averaged 19.8 points and shot 45 percent from the floor as a freshman for Kentucky. He went 11th overall in the 2017 NBA Draft and has been with the Hornets ever since — he has been somewhat of a disappointment.
Carsen Edwards won the award as a sophomore in 2018. He has his best overall season with Purdue that year, averaging 18.5 points while shooting 46 percent from the floor and 41 percent from deep. He was a second-round pick by the Celtics and has played in 56 career games with Boston, averaging just 3.8 points.
Part of one of the most talented Duke teams ever, RJ Barrett was an All-American and Jerry West Award winner in 2019. He averaged 22.6 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game, shooting 45 percent from the floor. He was drafted third overall by the Knicks and has been solid in the NBA.
Myles Powell is the only Jerry West Award winner who is not currently in the NBA as the former Seton Hall star is in the G-League. He averaged 21 points and shot just a sliver under 40 percent from the floor for the Pirates in 2019-20 and went undrafted.
Duarte averaged 17.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game but he may be the best overall shooter to win the award as he made 53 percent of his field goals and 42 percent of his threes. He figures to be a first-round draft pick with his length and athleticism and he can be just as successful, if not more so, as the previous winners.