Bradley Beal Elite alum EJ Liddell is preparing for his junior season at Ohio State University, and he’s on the radar as one of the best big men in NCAA Division I College Basketball.

E.J. was among the 20 college big men named this week to the 2022 Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award Watch List by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

The College Hoops Today Preseason All-American is coming off a sophomore season in which he averaged 16.2 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, earning All Big Ten First Team honors. He was later named to the Big Ten Tournament Team, and although Ohio State lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, it wasn’t through lack of effort from E.J., who scored 23 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in the loss to Oral Roberts.

Ohio State opens the 21-22 regular season on Nov. 9 against Akron.

The Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award Watch List will be trimmed to 10 in January and five finalists will be announced in February. Then in March, Karl Malone himself, and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame selection committee will select the winner.