Purdue’s Edey, Houston’s Sasser and Creighton’s Kalkbrenner among contenders for Naismith Defensive award

The watch list for the 2023 Naismith Defensive Player of the Year was released on Wednesday and included several of the sport’s top players.

Among those left off after the initial list was Kentucky big man Oscar Tshiebwe.

Here are the finalists:

Chase Audige (Northwestern)

Moussa Cisse (Oklahoma State)

Jaylen Clark (UCLA)

Zach Edey (Purdue)

Trayce Jackson-Davis (Indiana)

Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton)

Kevin McCullar (Kansas)

Caleb McConnell (Rutgers)

Marcus Sasser (Houston)

Zakai Zeigler (Tennessee).

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Written by Adam Zagoria

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Adam Zagoria is a Basketball Insider who covers basketball at all levels. A contributor to The New York Times and SportsNet New York (SNY), he is also the author of two books and is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker. His articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide. He also won an Emmy award for his work on the SNY mini-documentary on Syracuse guard Tyus Battle. A veteran Ultimate Frisbee player, he has competed in numerous National and World Championships and, perhaps more importantly, his teams won the Westchester Summer League (WSL) championships in 2011 and 2013. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and children.