KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – University of Tennessee men’s basketball standout Felix Okpara is part of the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Top 20 Preseason Watch List, as revealed Friday afternoon by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
A 6-foot-11, 243-pound senior who hails from Lagos, Nigeria, Okpara is the lone returning starter for the Volunteers from last year’s 30-8 campaign that included a run to the Elite Eight.
The annual Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, named after the Class of 1995 Hall of Famer and three-time NCAA champion, celebrates its 12th year by honoring the top centers in Division I men’s college basketball.
Okpara is one of four SEC competitors on the Abdul-Jabbar Award preseason list. He is joined by Florida’s Alex Condon, Arkansas’ Malique Ewin and Kentucky’s Jayden Quaintance.
In total, three Tennessee players made the cut for a Naismith Starting 5 Watch List. Senior Ja’Kobi Gillespie was selected Monday to the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Top 20 Preseason Watch List and freshman Nate Ament was chosen Wednesday for the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Top 20 Preseason Watch List.
Last season, his first as a Volunteer after transferring in from Ohio State, Okpara averaged 7.1 points, 6.4 rebounds and a team-high 1.7 blocks in 25.8 minutes per game. He shot 58.9 percent from the floor.
Okpara totaled 64 blocks on the year, tied for the fourth-most in a campaign in Tennessee history. He also pulled down 93 offensive rebounds to rank No. 11 on the program’s single-season leaderboard. The 38-game starter ranked third in the SEC in the former category and co-seventh in the latter.
The Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award Midseason Top 10 List will be announced in late January, with the finalists named in March and the winner revealed at the Final Four. Each round, including the initial preseason watch list, features fan voting at hoophallawards.com, with ballots opening Oct. 31. Additional information on the Naismith Starting 5—there is one honoree for each position—can be found at the same link.
In 2024-25, Chaz Lanier earned the Jerry West Award as the top shooting guard in America and Zakai Zeigler was a finalist for the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award. The year before, in 2023-24, Dalton Knecht won the Julius Erving Award as the country’s best small forward.
To keep up with the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team on social media, follow @Vol_Hoops on Instagram and X/Twitter, as well as /tennesseebasketball on Facebook.
