Tack up another preseason accolade for Jason Edwards. After recently being named to the preseason All-Big East 2nd Team ahead of the upcoming season, Edwards has now been named as one of the twenty shooting guards on the Jerry West Award watch list. Sports Illustrated had recently named Edwards as one of the Top-15 shooting guards in college so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone in Friartown that he would be included on a Top-20 list for the best shooting guard in college basketball.

Just like in Sports Illustrated’s list, there were four Big East players were accounted for on this watch list. However, instead of Chase Ross (Marquette) making an appearance alongside Edwards, Solo Ball (UConn) & Josh Dix (Creighton), it was Ian Jackson (St. John’s) this time. Since the award’s inception in 2015, there has only been one Big East player to win for the best shooting guard in college basketball and that was Seton Hall’s Myles Powell in 2020. Other past winners include D’Angelo Russell (Ohio State), Buddy Heild (Oklahoma), Malik Monk (Kentucky), Carsen Edwards (Purdue), RJ Barrett (Duke), Chris Duarte (Oregon), Johnny Davis (Wisconsin), Marcus Sasser (Houston), RJ Davis (UNC), and Chaz Lanier (Tennessee).

Edwards transferred to Providence following a stellar season at Vanderbilt in 2024-25 where he led the Commodores in scoring (17.0 ppg) and helped them to a 20-13 record and NCAA Tournament berth. He also earned Third Team All-SEC honors as the result of his high-level play last season.

Edwards ranked eighth in the SEC in scoring and hit 65 threes at a more than respectable 35.3% clip. A percentage that he was able to achieve will shooting 5.6 threes a game. Edwards made multiple three-pointers in 22 of 33 games last season. Last season for the Friars, only two players made 65+ three point shots and both of those players are no longer on the team, Bensley Joseph with 74 & Jayden Pierre -with 67. In fact, PC only had 66 three-point makes from players returning to the Friars line-up from last season’s team between Rich Barron (34), Corey Floyd Jr. (22), Ryan Mela (9), & Nilavan Daniels (1). Edwards shot 83.1% from the line, including 143 makes, which ranked first on the team. He was able to show off his scoring prowess by logging 10 20-point games, highlighted by a 30-point night vs. TCU.

The season prior, Edwards averaged 19.1 ppg and hit 84 threes at North Texas, where he earned First Team All-AAC and NABC All-District honors. Edwards was able to rack up five 30-point performances that year, including a (still) career-high 37 vs. Tulane.