2010 JOHN R. WOODEN AWARD_®

BALLOT OUT TO VOTERS

Voting Underway to Select Wooden All American team and Wooden Award Winner

Voters have until 3 p.m. EST on Monday, March 29^th to cast their votes, a long voting period that allows Wooden Award voters the unique opportunity to evaluate players up through games of the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. Voters rank players from 10 to 1 to complete the ballot. All 26 players selected to the National Ballot have proven to their universities that they are making progress toward graduation while maintaining a cumulative 2.0 GPA.

The ballot includes returning Wooden Award All-American Luke Harangody (23.3 ppg, 9.7 rpg) of Notre Dame. The 6-8 forward is a three-time All-Big East selection and the nation’s No. 2 scorer. Kalin Lucas (14.8 ppg, 3.9 ast) of co-Big 10 champions Michigan State, Kyle Singler (17.2 ppg, 6.8 rpg) of ACC regular season champions Duke, and Sherron Collins (15.3 ppg, 4.3 ast) of Big 12 champion Kansas are also on the Wooden Award ballot for the second straight year.

Kansas, Kentucky and Duke, all ranked in the Associated Press Top 5 this week, are the only three schools with two balloted players. Joining Collins from Kansas is 6-11 center Cole Aldrich (11.3 ppg, 9.7 rpg, 3.5 blocks); both players are two-time All-Big 12 selections. Kentucky features the only two freshmen on the list, DeMarcus Cousins (15.6 ppg, 10.1 rpg) and John Wall (16.8 ppg, 6.2 ast). Versatile Jon Scheyer (18.9, 3.5 rpg, 5.2 ast) pairs with Singler on the ballot for the Blue Devils.

The Big East has the most balloted players, with 7 of the 26 total spots. The ACC and Big 12 have four apiece, the SEC and Big 10 have three, the Mountain West two, and the Pac-10, West Coast and Horizon League each have one player chosen to the ballot. Twenty-four of the 26 players on the ballot will be playing in the NCAA Tournament.

Five players made the Wooden Award ballot who were not on the Wooden Award Midseason Top 30 list: Cousins, Lazar Hayward of Marquette, Dominique Jones of South Florida, Jerome Randle of California and Greivis Vasquez of Maryland. Ohio State’s Evan Turner had been out with an injury and was named as an additional player to the midseason list.

The 34th annual Wooden Award ceremony, which will include the announcement of the Men’s and Women’s Wooden Award winner, and the presentation of the Legends of Coaching Award to Florida’s Billy Donovan, will take place on April 9, 2010.

Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award is the most prestigious individual honor in college basketball.  It is bestowed upon the nation’s best player at an institution of higher education who has proven to his or her university that he or she is making progress toward graduation and maintaining a cumulative 2.0 GPA.  Previous winners include such notables as Larry Bird (’79), Michael Jordan (’84), Tim Duncan (’97), and Blake Griffin (’09). Candace Parker (Tennessee) won the Women’s Wooden Award in 2007 and 2008 and Maya Moore (Connecticut) won last year.

Since its inception, the John R. Wooden Award has contributed close to a million dollars to universities’ general scholarship fund in the names of the All-American recipients. The Award has also sent more than 1,000 underprivileged children to week-long college basketball camps in the Award’s name.   Additionally, the John R. Wooden Award partners with Special Olympics Southern California (SOSC) each year to host the Wooden Award Special Olympics Southern California Basketball Tournament.  The all-day tournament, which brings together Special Olympic athletes and the All-Americans, takes place at The Los Angeles Athletic Club during the John R. Wooden Award weekend.

For more information on the John R. Wooden Award, please contact Cory Hathaway at 213-630-5206/[email protected] or visit www.WoodenAward.com. Media may visit the website or contact Linda Reid at 310-291-9205/[email protected].

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