Creighton Bluejays center Ryan Kalkbrenner has made history as he’s won his fourth consecutive Big East Defensive Player of the Year Award. For the fourth consecutive year, Kalkbrenner has beaten some of the best defenders that the Big East has ever seen and is now in special company.
Kalkbrenner joins the legendary Patrick Ewing, becoming the only player to win four straight Defensive Player of the Year awards. From 1982 to 1985, Ewing was the player to beat in the Big East. Fast-forward 40 years, and Kalkbrenner is now the player to beat in the Big East defensively.
Ryan Kalkbrenner Makes History With 4th Straight DPOY Award
The 7’1″ senior led the entire league in blocks with 80 throughout the season. Surprisingly, this was not a career-high for Kalkbrenner, as he had 107 blocks in the 2023-24 season. However, Kalkbrenner did pick up a career-high in rebounds and assists with 270 and 47, respectively.
Kalkbrenner also had a good shooting season. He shot 66.3% from the field, making 232 shots out of his 350 attempts. This includes having his best season from beyond the arc, connecting on 17 of his 50 shots from deep for a career-high 34%.
Kalkbrenner leads the league in blocked shots per game with 2.7, rebounds per game with 9, and field goal percentage .663 while ranking second with 19.4 points per contest.
The two-time All-Bg East First Team honoree entered Sunday ranked fourth nationally in field goal percentage, fourth in blocked shots, 11th in field goals made, and 37th in double-doubles.
Kalkbrenner was voted by fellow Big East coaches for his fourth straight Defensive Player of the Year award. He is also in the running for the Conference Player of the Year award, as well. His only competition for that comes in St. John’s RJ Louis Jr & Zubi Ejiofor, Marquette’s Kam Jones, Villanova’s Eric Dixon, and Georgetown’s Micah Peavy.
Perhaps one of Kalkbrenner’s most impressive feats is that he has never fouled out of a game. As a great defender, that’s unheard of in today’s generation. A lot of blocks, which equates to a lot of physical play, typically lead to a lot of fouls.
Kalkbrenner owns quite a few BIG EAST career records, like blocked shots with 248, field goal percentage with .639, games played with 97, minutes played with 2,895, and field goals with 544.
He is also second in Creighton history in blocked shots with 386, points with 2,352, and field goal percentage with .661. He is also third in rebounding with 1,113 rebounds.
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The stat sheet doesn’t lie, and Kalkbrenner is truly one of the best college defenders that the game has ever seen.
Winning four straight Defensive Player of the Year awards is certainly no accident. If he keeps this up, he could very well be one of the next NBA greats one day.
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