KANSAS CITY, Mo.  – University of Dayton guard Jalen Crutcher has been named to the watch list for the 2021 NABC Division I Player of the Year, powered by ShotTracker.  Crutcher is one of 20 players, and the only one from the Atlantic 10 Conference named to the watch list.  The award is presented by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

The 2021 NABC Division I Player of the Year award will be announced during the 2021 AT&T NABC Guardians of the Game Awards Show, which takes place alongside the NABC Convention and Final Four. Obi Toppin won the award last season.

A preseason All-American (Second Team according to Stadium), Crutcher is also on the watch list for the Atlanta Tip-Off Club's Naismith Trophy and 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 and the nation's sixth-best guard by The Athletic.

Crutcher 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.

The Flyers play Cedarville in an exhibition game at UD Arena Saturday at 2 p.m. ET.