UConn's Kemba Walker was announced the winner of Bob Cousy Award, given annually by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the nation’s top point guard.

Walker beat out Jimmer Fredette of BYU and Nolan Smith of Duke among others for the award, which is given out by the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

“I am thrilled that Kemba has been named the winner of the Bob Cousy Award. He is having one of the great seasons ever in college basketball history,” UConn coach Jim Calhoun said in a statement. “Beyond the stats, game-winning shots and accolades, he epitomizes the leadership that a great point guard must have and what he has done to lead our young team to a Big East Championship and to a spot in the Final Four has been unforgettable.”

Walker is averaging 23.9 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.9 steals per game.

For the first time in Illinois history, two players shared its top basketball award.

East Aurora's Ryan Boatright and Rock Island's Chasson Randle each finished with 257 points after statewide voting by coaches and media ended March 25. 

Randle, who was named Gatorade Player of the Year in Illinois, will team with Boatright on the North team this weekend in the All-American Championship games in Houston, site of the Final Four.

Morgan Park's Wayne Blackshear was third with 198 points, followed by Perspectives-MSA's Anthony Davis (120) and Benet's David Sobolewski (90).

Boatright, a senior guard who has signed with Connecticut, averaged 32 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals per game.

Randle, a senior guard who has signed with Stanford, averaged 21.7 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.

Past winners of the award include Derrick Rose and Kevin Garnett.

• Click here for prior history of the Illinois Mr. Basketball award.

In three games against Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals, Kemba Walker was held below his season averages in field-goal shooting (34.0 percent), three-point shooting (18.7 percent) and scoring (18.3 points per game).

The secret to their success, Pitino says, was keeping him from his comfort zone.

“We start with the theory that if you let a great guard get to the middle of the floor, you're going to have trouble,” Pitino said. “So the first thing we did was try to keep him out of the middle as much as possible.”

It's almost inevitable that Walker will make plays. But Pitino said the Cards concentrated on making him work for everything.

“We know we're not going to stop him to a certain degree, although we had success against him,” Pitino said. “We just want him to shoot a low percentage. So we trap him out of our zone, we trap him on pick and rolls, we switch and then come back and trap him but don't let him roam free in the middle.”

Villanova guard Maalik Wayns announced that he will return to Villanova next season, ending speculation that he would test the NBA waters this summer.

The 6-foot-2, 185-pound Wayns averaged 13.8 points, 4.5 assists and 30.1 minutes per game in 2010-11.

He is projected as a second round pick by several draft outlets.

Louisville's Rick Pitino is making $7.5 million this season, according to a USA TODAY analysis of contracts and other compensation documents. dwarfing the $85,000 of Northern Colorado's B.J. Hill.

Pitino's compensation — nearly 90 times more than Hill's — is boosted by a $3.6 million bonus for completing three years of his contract.

Among the 33 coaches whose pay USA TODAY has tracked the last two seasons, the average pay was up 11% to $1.7 million, not including bonuses averaging up to $390,000.

Kentucky's John Calipari will make $3.9 million this year, with another $650,000 in tournament bonus money available. Virginia Commonwealth's Shaka Smart will make $424,000, with about $257,000 in possible tournament bonuses.

Kemba Walker has garnered most of the publicity for UConn's postseason run, averaging almost 27 points a game, but freshman Jeremy Lamb, Shabazz Napier and Roscoe Smith have stepped up throughout the tournament.

Lamb and Roscoe Smith are both starters, and Shabazz Napier plays 23.6 minutes per game off the bench. Lamb is averaging 18.3 points during NCAA tournament play and Smith scored a career-high 17 points in the Huskies’ opening-round victory over Bucknell. Napier is averaging eight points and 10 points over his last four games.

“He brings that little extra playmaking to a team,” Walker said of Napier. “There’s times when I’m not able to be on the ball the whole game because maybe I’m a little fatigued. Guys will want to pressure me and he gives me that extra edge.”

UConn’s freshmen have been the biggest key, especially lately.

“I don’t think anybody could tell them anything right now,” Walker said. “They’re on top of the world. They’re playing great basketball, each and every one of them. We’re going to need these guys big time for us. They got us where we are now, so hopefully they can keep it up.”

Kemba Walker is on pace to blow away the postseason performances of the Most Outstanding Players of the past 14 NCAA tournaments.

Statsheet.com keeps game-by-game stats dating back to 1997. Since then, the highest postseason average points-plus-rebounds-plus-assists total for the MOPs belongs to Syracuse's Carmelo Anthony. While leading the Orange to the 2003 national title, Melo averaged 33.7 (21.4 points, 10 rebounds, 2.3 assists) in two Big East tournament games and six NCAA tournament games.

In five Big East tournament games and four NCAA tournament games this season, Walker is averaging 37.5 (26.3 points, 5.9 rebounds, 5.3 assists).

Pittsburgh guard Ashton Gibbs is making himself available for the NBA draft without hiring an agent, a source told CBSSports.com’s Gary Parrish.

By declaring for the draft early, Gibbs can work out for NBA teams and get advice about his draft standing, pulling his name if he isn't projected to go as high as he'd like.

The 6-foot-2 guard averaged 16.8 points and shot 49.0 percent from 3-point range this season. He is not projected as a first-round pick.

Senior guards Jimmer Fredette of BYU and Nolan Smith of Duke are the leading vote-getters on The Associated Press All-America team.

Freshman Jared Sullinger of Ohio State, junior guard Kemba Walker of Connecticut and senior forward JaJuan Johnson of Purdue also are on the team announced Monday.

Fredette, the nation's leading scorer, received all but one of 65 votes from the national media panel that selects the Top 25. Smith, who led the Blue Devils to a No. 1 ranking for 10 weeks this season, got 61 votes.

For a high-profile player like Walker, a junior projected as a possible top-10 pick if he declares for the N.B.A. draft, first-year assistant Kevin Ollie has provided a spiritual, intellectual and practical road map for what it takes to be a leader, a winner and a successful man at the next level — of basketball and life.

“Stay humble, believe in yourself, work every day like it’s your last day and always play like you’re trying out for the team,” Ollie said he told Walker.

Ollie, 38, holds a Ph.D. in the gritty reality of pro basketball life, having retired last year after 13 N.B.A. seasons.

Unlike high-profile ex-Huskies like Ray Allen, Emeka Okafor, Richard Hamilton and Ben Gordon, Ollie was a professional nomad. He played two seasons in the Continental Basketball Association, then played for 11 teams in 12 cities during his N.B.A. career.

In addition to working with UConn’s guards, Ollie reinforces Calhoun’s message — often delivered not so gently — of perseverance.
“You’ve got all these guys who stay in the league because he puts that self-fortitude in us that, throughout cuts, trades or anything that happens, that we believe in ourselves,” Ollie said.