All through San Diego State’s magical men’s basketball season, head coach Steve Fisher has called senior point guard D.J. Gay the team’s most important player.
Apparently someone took notice.

Gay was named one of the 10 finalists for the 2011 Bob Cousy Award, given to the nation’s top point guard, yesterday morning.

“Somebody’s watching,” Fisher said. “He’s very deserving not only to be there, but to be there as they continue to whittle the list down. He’s been phenomenal for this program and everybody that’s been around here knows that.”

Gay leads the team in assists (3.3 per game) and minutes played (34.5 per game), and is second in scoring (11.9 ppg). He also leads the Mountain West Conference in assist-to-turnover ratio for the season (2.76), and is turning the ball over even less during critical conference games (4.86), which is impressive considering the heavy minutes he plays every game.

“He’s grown into being a point guard that doesn’t hesitate to take calculated risks, but he’s smart,” Fisher said. “He knows when it’s time to do something, he knows what the opportunity is. He knows who he’s throwing it to. I think that’s the best thing about a good guard like D.J. … I think that’s allowed him to have the kind of gaudy stats in terms of assist-to-turnover (ratio) that he’s had. He’s made big plays for us and will continue to do that.”

Gay also got a lot of love from his teammates at yesterday’s press conference.

“D.J. being a four year player, he knows what to expect from defenses, knows what to expect from all these teams,” senior forward Malcolm Thomas said. “He’s doing a great job of not only being a leader but being that scoring option at the one. We appreciate D.J. a lot.”

“You can just see how smart he is on the court,” sophomore forward Kawhi Leonard added. “He just knows the game and knows how to get through traps, knows what’s coming and knows how to pass the ball.”

Starting today until March 8, fans can vote for their favorite candidate on the Bob Cousy Award’s website cousyaward.com. The player who receives the most fan votes will receive one vote toward the final committee decision.

The list will be narrowed down to five candidates by March 10, and the final list will be presented to Cousy and the Hall of Fame’s selection committee, who have the final say in the decision.

Jimmer Fredette (BYU), Nolan Smith (Duke), Kemba Walker (Connecticut) and Brandon Knight (Kentucky) were also among the finalists.