Top Five Vote-Getters Invited to April 9 Gala Presentation in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (April 1, 2010) – The 10-player John R. Wooden Award All American Team® was announced today (see below) with the top vote-getters invited to Los Angeles for the April 9 announcement of the 2010 John R. Wooden Award® winner as college basketball’s player of the year, streamed live by CBS College Sports Network.

Balloting by members of the media and college basketball experts was conducted over the past three weeks. Voters selected 10 players from the 26 athletes listed on the ballot, and ranked them from 1 to 10.  Voters were asked to take into account performance during the regular season and postseason through the Elite Eight, as well as a player’s character and academic performance, essential components of an outstanding player. All players on the ballot were certified by their schools as maintaining a 2.0 GPA at their current school.

“We feel tremendously proud to have these student athletes representing the 2010 John R. Wooden Award All American Team, in such an outstanding year for college basketball,” said Steve Hathaway, president of The Los Angeles Athletic Club, speaking on behalf of hospitalized John R. Wooden Award Chairman and Founder Richard “Duke” Llewellyn.

No players return from last year’s All-American team. This year’s squad features two players who will play in this week’s Final Four, West Virginia’s Da’Sean Butler (17.4 ppg, 6.3 rpg) and Jon Scheyer (18.6 ppg) of Duke. Kentucky’s John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins are the only freshmen and only teammates on the Wooden All-American team; they finished their seasons in the Elite Eight, Wall averaging 16.6 points and 6.4 assists and Cousins 15.1 points and 9.8 rebounds per game.

The 2010 John R. Wooden Award All-American team includes Oklahoma State’s James Anderson, (22.9 ppg) the Big 12 Player of the Year; Da’Sean Butler; Sherron Collins of Kansas (15.5 ppg, 4.5 ast); DeMarcus Cousins; Wesley Johnson of Syracuse (16.0 ppg, 8.4 assists), the Big East Player of the Year; Villanova’s Scottie Reynolds (18.5 ppg); Jon Scheyer; Ohio State’s Evan Turner (20.3 ppg, 9.2 rpg), the Big 10 Player of the Year; Greivis Vasquez of Maryland (19.3 ppg), the ACC Player of the Year; and John Wall.

The 34th John R. Wooden Award Presentation Gala will be held at 6:30 p.m. on April 9 at The Los Angeles Athletic Club, 431 W. Seventh Street in Los Angeles.  In addition to honoring the John R. Wooden Award All American teams, the “Legends of Coaching” Award will be presented to Florida’s Billy Donovan, who made his 10th appearance as a coach in the NCAA Tournament this year. The final vote tally will be released that night as well. Tickets are $105 and may be obtained by calling The Los Angeles Athletic Club at (213) 630-5200; the event always sells out.  Internet users may watch the announcement live at 7:30 p.m. that night on the CBS College Sports Network, by using the following link: http://all-access.cbssports.com/player.html?code=cs&media=175037

The winners will receive a contribution from The Los Angeles Athletic Club for their university’s general scholarship fund.  The Women’s John R. Wooden All-America team was announced yesterday.

Men’s 2010 John R. Wooden Award All American Team