ATLANTA – University of Dayton guard Jalen Crutcher has been named to the 2021 Jersey Mike's Naismith Trophy Men's Player of the Year Watch List.  Crutcher, the "Peanut Butter" to NBA lottery pick Obi Toppin's "Jam" last season, is one of 50 top college players named to the watch list.  The award is presented by the Atlanta Tip-Off Club.

A preseason All-American (Second Team according to Stadium), Crutcher is also on the watch list for the Basketball Hall of Fame's Bob Cousy Award.  He was ranked 16th in CBSSports.com's list of the top 100 (and 1) college basketball players.  

He quarterbacked Dayton to a 29-2 overall record, a No. 3 national ranking in the final poll and a perfect 18-0 mark in winning the Atlantic 10 Conference Regular Season Championship in 2019-20.  Last year, UD led Division I in field goal percentage (.525, 905-1725), was second in scoring margin (+15.5) and third in assists per game (17.6).

Entering his fourth year as a starter, Crutcher was First Team All-Atlantic 10 last year.  Sports Illustrated ranked him 34th in its listing of the Top 50 players of the 2019-20 college basketball season.  He was also First Team All-District 4 as voted on by the members of the National Association of Basketball Coaches.  During the year, he became the first UD player to be named a back-to-back conference player of the week.

Crutcher led Dayton in minutes (33.7), assists (4.9) three-pointers (2.4 per game), 3-pt. FG% (.468, 147-314) and FT% (.869, 86-99), and was second in scoring (15.1).  In Atlantic 10 Conference games, he was the only player in the top seven of the guard-oriented stat categories -- scoring (7th), assists (7th), 3-pt. FG's (5th), 3-pt % (4th), FT% (3rd) and A/T ratio (1st).  

He is currently 36th in career scoring at UD with 1,170 points, and ninth with 470 career assists.  Crutcher is third at Dayton in career assists per game (5.0) and second in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.18). He is on pace to finish second in career assists for the Flyers.

The Memphis native is a two-time Flyer White Allen MVP, sharing the honor last season with Toppin, the eventual national player of the year.