Luka Garza

ROSEMONT, Ill. — University of Iowa men’s basketball player Luka Garza has been named the 2020-21 Big Ten Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year, the conference announced on Wednesday.

Garza is the first Hawkeye men’s basketball player to earn the Big Ten Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year award, which was introduced in 1992. He is one of five Iowa student-athletes to be presented with the Big Ten’s most prestigious annual honor. Other previous Hawkeyes selected include wrestlers Brent Metcalf (2008), Barry Davis (1985) and Ed Banach (1983), and football’s Chuck Long (1986).

Garza is the first basketball player to earn the distinction since Michigan State’s Denzel Valentine in 2016, and only the seventh all-time.

Garza swept all major postseason men’s basketball awards in 2021 to become the program’s first consensus National Player of the Year.