INDIANAPOLIS – The U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) announced its major awards today, and the University of Dayton men's basketball program was rewarded with two of the three honors.  

Flyer head coach Anthony Grant was named this year's winner of the Henry Iba Award, which goes to the national coach of the year, and redshirt sophomore forward Obi Toppin was the recipient of the Oscar Robertson Trophy for being named the national player of the year.  The third award, the Wayman Tisdale Award for the national freshman of the year, went to Duke's Vernon Carey, Jr.

This is the 10th time since the USBWA began its awards program in 1959 that the national player and coach of the year came from the same school.

The Oscar Robertson Trophy is the nation's oldest award.  Robertson was the USBWA's first player of the year in 1959 and was the consensus national player of the year as a sophomore in 1958, the year before the USBWA started giving its player of the year award. The USBWA renamed the award the Oscar Robertson Trophy in 1998.

The Henry Iba Award is named in honor of the legendary coaching great at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) who won two NCAA championships and two gold medals as coach of the U S. Olympic teams.

The USBWA has chosen a national freshman of the year award since the 1988-89 season. It was named the Wayman Tisdale Award in honor of the late three-time USBWA All-American at Oklahoma and the first freshman to receive first-team All-America honors from the USBWA.

Grant had already been named Men's College Coach of the Year by the Associated Press, The Sporting News and CBSsports.com.  He is also a finalist for the Wooden Coach of the Year and the Naismith Coach of the Year awards.

Dayton went 29-2 this year, setting UD's record for wins in a season despite not having the benefit of post-season play.  Both of UD's losses were in overtime on neutral courts to teams expected to be in the NCAA tournament field – No. 1-ranked Kansas and Colorado.

The Flyers earned a No. 3 ranking in both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches polls.  After being picked to finish third in the Atlantic 10 Conference's preseason poll, UD was the first team to go 18-0 in the conference in 35 years.

Dayton finished 2019-20 on a 20-game win streak, the longest active winning streak in Division I.  The 20-game streak matches the longest in the same season in Flyer basketball history, matching the 20-gamer in 1951-52.

In the modern era of UD basketball (Post-World War II), Grant is just the second Dayton grad to coach the Flyers. The first was his coach, College BB Hall of Famer Don Donoher (1964-89).

Toppin is Dayton's first consensus All-American.  

He has been selected the College Basketball Player of the Year by the Associated Press, The Athletic, USA Today, CBSsports.com, NBC Sports and Rivals.  Sports Illustrated announced its Top 50 College Basketball Players for the 2019-20 season last week, and Toppin's uniform number matched his ranking – "1."  

The Brooklyn native is a finalist for the Atlanta Tip-Off Club's Citizen Naismith Trophy, is on the national ballot for the Los Angeles Athletic Club's John R. Wooden Award, and is on the watch list the Basketball Hall of Fame's Karl Malone Award.

Toppin finished the year averaging 20.0 points and 7.5 rebounds a game, and shooting .633 (245-387) from the field, .390 (32-82) from 3-pt. range and .702 (99-141) from the line.  According to Synergy Basketball, Toppin led the nation with 1.20 points per possession while he was on the floor.

He was the only player in the country who averaged 20.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and shot over 60% from the field.  He also had the best field goal percentage in the last five years of any Division I player who averaged 20 points a game.

One of the most efficient players in the nation, Toppin averaged 20.0 points a game, while taking just 12.5 field goal attempts per game.  Despite not strictly playing in the post, his 167 "close-in" 2-pt. FG's were 30 more than anyone else in the nation.


Toppin led the A-10 in FG% (.633, 245-387), and was second in scoring (20.0).  He was the only player in the conference to be listed in both the top ten in FG% and 3-pt. FG% (8th, .390, 32-82).  He was also fifth nationally in field goal percentage, even though he took more than double the number of three-pointers the rest of the top 10 combined.

The athletic high Flyer also led the nation in dunks (107).

Fan voting is currently ongoing for the Naismith, Wooden and Malone awards. 

The Oscar Robertson Trophy, Henry Iba Award and Wayman Tisdale Award are voted on by the entire membership of the association, which consists of more than 900 journalists. 

The U.S. Basketball Writers Association was formed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. Today, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball. For more information on the USBWA and its awards programs, contact executive director Malcolm Moran at 814-574-1485.