IU sophomore center Thomas Bryant picked up his first preseason accolade for 2016, being named first-team preseason All-American by the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook.
Bryant is joined on the team by two other Big Ten players — Maryland’s Melo Trimble and Wisconsin’s Nigel Hayes — as well as Ivan Rabb from Cal and Grayson Allen from Duke.
The 6-foot-10 sophomore from Rochester, New York, averaged 11.9 points and 5.8 rebounds in his freshman campaign while leading the conference with a 68.3 field-goal percentage.
Bryant started all 35 games as a freshman, recording 32 blocks, 17 steals and shooting 70 percent from the free-throw line in that span.
He made the decision last spring to not enter the NBA draft and to return to Bloomington for his sophomore season, expecting to be the focal point of the IU offense in the paint for the upcoming year.
Zain Pyarali
