ATLANTA – Duke standouts Grayson Allen and Brandon Ingram were among 35 student-athletes from across the nation named to the Naismith Trophy Mid-Season List on Thursday in an announcement by the Atlanta Tipoff Club.
Duke is one of six programs to place multiple student-athletes on the list, along with Gonzaga, Iowa State, Kansas, Kentucky and Providence.
Allen has had one of the breakout years in all of college basketball this season, averaging team bests of 20.8 points and 3.6 assists to go along with 4.6 rebounds in 35.1 minutes per game. He is shooting 49.4 percent from the floor, 43.9 percent from three-point range and 86.1 percent from the free throw line.
The Jacksonville, Fla., native's scoring average ranks second in the ACC and fifth among players in the major college basketball conferences, while he also ranks third in the ACC in three-point field goal percentage, sixth in free throw percentage, eighth in three-point field goals per game (2.3) and 10th in field goal percentage.
Allen is currently on pace to become the ninth Duke player, and first since Nolan Smith in 2011, to lead the Blue Devils in both scoring and assists in a season. He has eclipsed the 20-point mark 11 times this season, including three 30-point efforts, and has led Duke in scoring a dozen times.
His scoring increase of 16.4 points per game from last season is on pace to set a new ACC record, as he averaged 4.4 points per contest in reserve duty in helping Duke win its fifth national championship a year ago. He has scored in double figures in 22 of Duke's 24 games this season and is currently in the midst of a streak of 13 consecutive double-figure scoring games.
Allen has been named ACC Player of the Week twice this season and was tabbed 2K Classic MVP after leading Duke to the title in November. He is among the finalists for the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award, as well as a candidate for the Wooden Award.
Ingram has been one of the best freshmen in the nation in 2015-16, as he is currently one of just four rookies in the country averaging better than 16.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. For the year, he is averaging 16.9 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.6 blocks while shooting 47.6 percent from the floor and 40.7 percent from beyond the arc.
He has a team-leading six double-doubles on the season, which also tops ACC freshmen and ranks sixth on Duke's freshman chart. He has scored in double figures 20 times on the year, including each of Duke's last 16 games, and eclipsed the 20-point mark on eight occasions.
For the season, Ingram ranks sixth in the ACC in three-point field goal percentage, seventh in scoring, eighth in blocks and 15th in rebounding. He also leads the Blue Devils in steals with an average of 1.2 per game. Ingram has also become just the seventh freshman in program history to make at least 50 three-point field goals in a season.
The Preseason ACC Freshman of the Year, Ingram has been named the league's Rookie of the Week three times this season and is a finalist for the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award.
The Atlanta Tipoff Club will announce the semifinalists for the Naismith Trophy on March 2 and the list of finalists on March 20.
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