Jamal Murray, Tyler Ulis on Naismith Award Watch List

The Kentucky Wildcats are surging thanks in large part to the play of freshman guard Jamal Murray and sophomore point guard Tyler Ulis.

So it comes as no surprise that those two have made the Naismith Award Watch List, which was announced Thursday morning. Ulis was also just named to the Wooden Award Watch List as he's making a strong bid for some postseason hardware.

While Ulis established himself as one of the best players in college basketball, it's Murray who has been scorching hot over the past week. He recently had one of the greatest shooting performances a Wildcat has ever had. It came in an 80-6 in over Florida in which Murray hit 13-of-21 shots for a career-high 35 points.

Murray followed that up with a 24-point outing in an 82-48 win over Georgia on Tuesday night. Murray has now hit 14 of his last 20 three-point attempts and is on pace to break UK's single-season freshman scoring record at 18.5 points per game.

There are six schools with two players on the Watch List: Iowa State (Georges Niang and Monte Morris); Kentucky (Murray and Ulis); Kansas (Perry Ellis and Wayne Selden); Providence (Ben Bentil and Kris Dunn); Gonzaga (Domantas Sabonis and Kyle Wiltjer) and Duke (Brandon Ingram and Grayson Allen).

Here is the full Naismith Watch List:

AJ Hammons, center, Purdue
Cat Barber, guard, N.C. State
Ben Bentil, forward, Providence
Ben Simmons, forward, LSU
Brandon Ingram, forward, Duke
Brice Johnson, forward, North Carolina
Buddy Hield, guard, Oklahoma
Damion Lee, guard, Louisville
Demetrius Jackson, guard, Notre Dame
Denzel Valentine, guard, Michigan State
Dillon Brooks, forward, Oregon
Domantas Sabonis, center, Gonzaga
Fred VanVleet, guard, Wichita State
Gary Payton, guard, Oregon State
Georges Niang, forward, Iowa State
Grayson Allen, guard, Duke
Jakob Poeltl, center, Utah
Jalen Jones, forward, Texas A&M
Jamaal Murray, forward, Kentucky
Jameel Warney, forward, Stony Brook
Jarrod Uthoff, forward, Iowa
Josh Hart, guard, Villanova
Kay Felder, guard, Oakland
Kris Dunn, guard, Providence
Kyle Wiltjer, forward, Gonzaga
Malcolm Brogdon, guard, Virginia
Melo Trimble, guard, Maryland
Monte Morris, guard, Iowa State
Nic Moore, guard SMU
Perry Ellis, forward, Kansas
Sheldon McClelland, guard, Miami
Trevon Bluiett, guard, Xavier
Tyler Ulis, guard, Kentucky
Wayne Selden, forward, Kansas
Yogi Ferrell, guard, Indiana