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Rece Davis explains College GameDay wrongly revealing Ryan Kalkbrenner as winner of Bob Cousy Award

IMG_0985by:Griffin McVeigh•04/05/25•

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Rece Davis
Kirby Lee | Imagn Images

Creighton‘s Ryan Kalkbrenner was hoping to win some silverware on Saturday. Up for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, the announcement was going to be made on ESPN ahead of the Final Four. And then Kalkbrenner apparently won the Bob Cousy Award, handed to the nation’s top point guard.

ESPN’s Rece Davis was going through the Bob Cousy Award candidates and as the winner was being revealed, a video package of Kalkbrenner began to play. Except, Purdue‘s Braden Smith was supposed to be up there since he was the winner.

Davis immediately pointed out the error while live before taking to X for an even further explanation. A simple mess up from ESPN, even exposing who would wind up winning the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award.

“A wrong tape rolled,” Davis said via X. “We said Braden Smith won. We didn’t give the award to Kalkbrenner. But might’ve foreshadowed another award.”

Smith is a worthy winner of the Bob Cousy Award, mainly because he is a point guard. But the stats were incredible as well for the Purdue star. In 36 games, Smith averaged 15.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 8.7 assists per game. He won Big Ten Player of the Year alongside being a Consensus All-American.

From a team perspective, Purdue won 24 games and went 13-7 in Big Ten play. A four seed was earned in the NCAA Tournament, once again making the Sweet Sixteen under head coach Matt Painter. A campaign Smith will likely want to build on heading into next season, eligible to return for another year.

Kalkbrenner was pretty good on his own too. Listed at 7′, Kalkbrenner scored an average of 19.2 points per game while shooting 65.3% from the field. His rebounding numbers are pretty good as well, grabbing 8.7 per game. Ten double-doubles are on the stat sheet throughout the season. Creighton earned an at-large bid before losing in the second round to Auburn.

If Kalkbrenner was a point guard, maybe he would have had a real shot at winning the Bob Cousy Award. As a center, there was never going to be an opportunity. After all, there is a full height difference between him and Smith.

A tough but funny mistake from ESPN and one Davis could easily explain a few moments later on social media. Kalkbrenner might not even need to tune in to see who winds up winning the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award either.