The St. John’s forward/center is one of four finalists for Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, the national award’s organizers announced Friday.
The others are Kansas center Flory Bidunga, Florida center Rueben Chinyelu and Houston forward Joseph Tugler.
Entering Friday night’s Sweet 16 game against Duke, the 6-9, 240-pound Ejiofor was averaging 2.2 blocks, 7.3 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game as the bruising tone-setter for a hyper-physical Red Storm defense.
During the regular season, the senior Ejiofor recorded nine games with at least three blocks — including back-to-back eight-block performances in December against Ole Miss and Iona.
He also had seven blocks in the Red Storm’s 72-52 victory over UConn in this month’s Big East Tournament final, then opened the NCAA Tournament with four rejections in a 79-53 rout of Northern Iowa in the first round.
“Zuby’s one of the top players in the country. Zuby’s going to be a great pro,” head coach Rick Pitino said recently.
“When you lead a team that won [the Big East in] the regular season, won the conference tournament, beating a tremendous team with Connecticut by 20 points, you lead the team in scoring, rebounds, blocked shots, assists for a center, you’re one of the top players in all of basketball.”
Of course, Ejiofor faces worthy competition for Naismith Defense Player of the Year.
Chinyelu ranks fourth among Division I players with 11.2 rebounds per game. Bidunga ranks fifth with 2.6 blocks per game. And Tugler headlined a Houston defense that allowed just 62.3 points per game — the second fewest among Division I teams.
A St. John’s player has never won the award.
The Naismith consideration further strengthens the argument that Ejiofor was snubbed for one of the 15 spots on the Associated Press’ All-America teams. In that national vote, Ejiofor was recognized as only an honorable mention.
Still, this has been a busy awards season for Ejiofor, who was previously named the Big East’s Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year, as well as the Big East Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
“Coming to a program like St. John’s [that had] experienced a few down years, the past two years turning out pretty successful,” Ejiofor said ahead of Friday’s game in Washington, D.C. “Just seeing the whole city and Johnnies Nation having our back, the excitement that we brought to the program the last two years, it’s been pretty special.”
Ejiofor had also been named one of 10 semifinalists for Naismith Player of the Year, but he was not one of the four finalists unveiled Friday for that honor.
Duke’s Cameron Boozer, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, Arkansas’ Darius Acuff Jr. and Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg are the finalists in that category.