Florida State University Athletics
Cleveland Named Top-10 Finalist For Julius Erving Award
2/8/2023 1:00:08 AM | Men's Basketball
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida State sophomore Matthew Cleveland, the Seminoles’ leading scorer with a career-high 14.2 points per game scoring average, has been named as one of the top-10 candidates for the 2023 Julius Erving Award. Sponsored by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, the award recognizes the best small forward in Division I men’s college basketball. Cleveland is the only player from the ACC on the Erving Award top-10 list.
Cleveland is a two-time Erving award honoree as he was named to the initial watch list for the award in both his freshman and sophomore seasons.
Cleveland enters Wednesday’s nationally televised game against Syracuse averaging career-highs in points (14.2 pg), rebounds (7.7 rpg), assists (1.9 apg), steals (0.9) and minutes played (34.2) while shooting a career-high .462 from the field and a career-high .378 from the 3-point line. He scored his career-high of 23 points against St. John’s in the Orange Bowl Classic (December 17) and pulled down his career-high of 16 rebounds in Florida State’s victory at Notre Dame (January 17).
Cleveland is ranked among the ACC’s leaders in both conference and non-conference games in both scoring and rebounding.
“Matthew has worked so hard to improve his perimeter shooting,” said Head Coach Leonard Hamilton. “He’s shooting very well from the perimeter; his defense has improved, and his leadership has been extremely important to our team. He leads by example. He rarely takes any possessions off. His leadership illustrates a lot about his toughness – when he is able to go, and go, and go – that shows that he has the heart of a competitor and that competitiveness rubs off on each one of his teammates.”
Cleveland scored 15 points against Louisville on Saturday and enters the Seminoles’ game against Syracuse having scored in double figures in a career-best 17 consecutive games. He is averaging 15.6 points scored per game since totaling 17 points against Nebraska on November 27 in the final game of the 2022 ESPN Events Invitational. Cleveland’s current double-figure scoring run is currently the second longest double-figure scoring streak among all ACC Players. His double-figure scoring streak is the longest by a Seminole since Dwayne Bacon scored in double figures in the first 26 games of the 2016-17 season.
2023 Julius Erving Award Candidates
Matthew Cleveland, Florida State
Brandon Miller, Alabama
Baylor Scheierman, Creighton
Julian Strawther, Gonzaga
Jalen Wilson, Kansas
Keyontae Johnson, Kansas State
Brice Sensabaugh, Ohio State
Kevin Obanor, Texas Tech
Jaime Jaquez Jr., UCLA
Colby Jones, Xavier
Fans can support their favorite players in the remaining rounds by participating in Fan Voting, presented by Dell Technologies, starting Friday, February 10, on hoophallawards.com. The Fan Vote will count as one committee vote during the finalist selection process.
In March, five finalists will be presented to Erving and the Hall of Fame’s selection committee. The Selection Committee for the Julius Erving Award is composed of top men’s college basketball personnel, including media members, head coaches, sports information directors and Hall of Famers.
Previous winners of the Julius Erving Award are Wendell Moore Jr, Duke (2022), Corey Kispert, Gonzaga (2021), Saddiq Bey, Villanova (2020), Rui Hachimura, Gonzaga (2019), Mikal Bridges, Villanova (2018), Josh Hart, Villanova (2017), Denzel Valentine, Michigan State (2016) and Stanley Johnson, Arizona (2015).