Freshman forward Nate Ament of the University of Tennessee men's basketball team is one of five finalists for the Julius Erving Award.
The annual Julius Erving Award, named after the Class of 1993 Hall of Famer and 17-year professional basketball player, celebrates its 12th year by recognizing the top small forwards in Division I men's college basketball.
The other finalists are BYU's A.J. Dybantsa, Florida's Thomas Haugh, Iowa State's Milan Momcilovic and Texas' Dailyn Swain. Three are from the SEC and two are freshmen, with Ament among both groups.
Ament averaged 17.4 points, a team-best 6.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.0 steal per game across 29 appearances in the regular season, good for a top-10 mark in scoring and a top-15 mark in rebounding. He put up 19.0 points per game in SEC play, ninth-best in the league, while shooting 36.8 percent from deep and 80.2 percent at the stripe.
A Second Team All-SEC designee according to both the league's coaches and the Associated Press, Ament is the fourth freshman in the last 20 seasons (2006-26) to score 28-plus points at least four times in SEC play.
Ament has 19 outings with 16-plus points, including 10 with at least 20. He owns 24 five-rebound showings, including 14 with seven-plus rebounds. His 16 contests with at least 15 points and five rebounds put him co-second in the SEC.
A 6-foot-10, 207-pounder out of Manassas, Va., Ament ranks second in SEC in weekly honors for a freshman with seven, as well as second with six SEC Freshman of the Week plaudits. He is top-30 nationally (min. 20 GP) with 5.7 made free throws per game, with his 164 total makes already putting him one away from the top 10 on Tennessee's single-season list.