Notre Dame Basketball: Jerian Grant Named to Associated Press All-American Team
Notre Dame’s Grant named First Team All-American
There’s always light at the end of the tunnel, and for Notre Dame senior guard
Jerian Grant, it comes in the form of a First Team All-American selection. There’s no doubt he would rather be playing in the Final Four, but this is a well deserved honor for Grant.
The team, selected by the same 65-member media panel that does the weekly Top-25, was chosen before the NCAA Tournament began. Wisconsin’s Frank Kaminsky was a unanimous selection, while Duke’s Jahlil Okafor missed by only one vote. Kentucky’s Willie Cauley-Stein and Ohio State freshman D’Angelo Russell round out the first team.
Grant’s path to this wasn’t an easy one, and very well could have not happened. After being suspended from the team last year due to an academic matter, he could have tucked his tail and moved on to somewhere else. But that’s not in Grant’s character.
So following a 15-17 debacle of a season without him, he returned to the Irish–along with Pat Connaughton–to lead this team to the Elite Eight, and within the grasp of the Final Four. It took an “unbeatable” Kentucky Wildcat’s team to keep them out.
Grant averaged 16.8 PPG, but it wasn’t his scoring that earned him the honor. It was his overall value to this Notre Dame team. He averaged 6.7 assists per game, often times looking to get his teammates involved before looking to score himself. It was that unselfish attitude that seemed to be contagious, as the Irish always seemed to make the “extra pass” to get the ball to the open man.
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But when he needed to make the clutch shot, he did. I can’t even recall how many times the shot or game clock was about to reach zero that Grant stepped back and hit the shot. Unfortunately the last one he shot as a member of the Fighting Irish couldn’t find the bottom of the net, but it doesn’t diminish the season Grant had.
He likely won’t win any Player of the Year awards–but his lasting effect on Notre Dame basketball will be more important. He put the Irish on center stage, with the “bluebloods” of college basketball in Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky–and in most cases came out on top. What this run means to recruiting is yet to be seen, but Grant has surely put South Bend in the mind of recruits as a possible landing spot if they want to be a part or something special.