Rueben Chinyelu lands on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award watch list

Rueben Chinyelu completed a clean sweep for Florida basketball’s projected starting five Friday.The fourth-year center was named to the 20-player preseason watch list for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, presented annually by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame to the top center in Division I men’s basketball.With Chinyelu’s selection, all five projected Florida starters have landed on one of the Hall of Fame’s Naismith Starting Five preseason watch lists.Boogie Fland is on the Bob Cousy Award watch list for point guards, Denzel Aberdeen made the Jerry West Award list for shooting guards, Thomas Haugh landed on the Julius Erving Award list for small forwards and Alex Condon was selected for the Karl Malone Award list for power forwards.Chinyelu enters the season after winning Naismith, NABC and SEC Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2025-26. He averaged 10.9 points and 11.2 rebounds per game and became the first Florida player in 50 years to average a double-double.He also set program records with 19 double-doubles and 137 offensive rebounds, according to Florida. Chinyelu has started all 75 games during his two seasons with the Gators, helping Florida post a 63-12 record over that stretch.The Abdul-Jabbar Award watch list will be trimmed from 20 players to 10 in February and five in March. The finalists will then be presented to Abdul-Jabbar and the Hall of Fame’s selection committee, which includes college basketball personnel, coaches, media members, sports information directors and Hall of Famers.Fans can support their favorite player by participating in Fan Voting starting today, Friday, October 30, via hoophallawards.com.Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Rueben Chinyelu lands on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award watch list