LOS ANGELES, CA (April 2, 2024) – The Los Angeles Athletic Club announced the 2024 John R. Wooden Award® presented by Principal® All American Team™ on ESPN2 today. The Wooden Award All American Team is comprised of ten student-athletes who were the top vote-getters in the quest to earn college basketball’s most prestigious honor. The ten-player team, alphabetically, consists of: RJ Davis (North Carolina), Hunter Dickinson (Kansas), Zach Edey (Purdue), Kyle Filipowski (Duke), Dalton Knecht (Tennessee), Tyler Kolek (Marquette), Jaedon LeDee (San Diego State), Caleb Love (Arizona), Tristen Newton (Connecticut), and Jamal Shead (Houston). The five finalists for the 2024 John R. Wooden Award presented by Principal Men’s Player of the Year are: RJ Davis, Zach Edey, Dalton Knecht, Tristen Newton, and Jamal Shead.  All five players have been invited to Los Angeles for the 48^th annual presentation of the John R. Wooden Award presented by Principal Gala.

Voting took place from March 18-25, 2024. As insisted upon by Coach Wooden at the Award’s creation 47 years ago, all players were certified by their universities as meeting or exceeding the criteria of the John R. Wooden Award.  The 48^th annual John R. Wooden Award presented by Principal Men’s Player of the Year will be announced on Tuesday, April 9^th on SportsCenter on ESPN.  The John R. Wooden Award presented by Principal Gala will honor the Men’s and Women’s Wooden Award winners, and will include the presentation of the Wooden Award All American Teams and the Legends of Coaching Award, this year given to John Calipari.  The Gala will take place at the Los Angeles Athletic Club on Friday, April 12^th.

About the John R. Wooden Award

Established in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award Program hosts the most prestigious honors in college basketball, recognizing The Wooden Award Most Outstanding Player for men and women, The Wooden Award All America Teams for men and women, and the annual selection of the Wooden Award Legend of Coaching recipient. Honorees have demonstrated to their university that they meet or exceed the qualifications of the John R. Wooden Award.

Since its inception, the John R. Wooden Award has contributed nearly one million dollars to non-profit organizations, including general scholarship funds in the names of the Wooden Award All American recipients, and has sent more than 1,000 underprivileged children to week-long camps. Additionally, the John R. Wooden Award partners with the Special Olympics Southern California (SOSC) each year to host the Wooden Award Special Olympics Southern California Basketball Tournament.  Starting in 2024, the John R. Wooden Award Foundation will empower balloted candidates to use the Wooden Award platform to promote their chosen charities, with the Wooden Award presenting donations to the top five All Americans' charities of choice to support their character initiatives.

Previous winners include Larry Bird (’79), Ralph Sampson (’82, ’83), Michael Jordan (’84), Tim Duncan (’97), Kevin Durant (’07), Candace Parker (’07; ’08), Maya Moore (’09; ’11), Breanna Stewart (’15; ’16), and last year’s recipients, Caitlin Clark of Iowa and Zach Edey of Purdue.

The Legends of Coaching Award presented by Principal will be conferred upon University of Kentucky coach John Calipari, alongside the Wooden Award Men’s and Women’s Players of the Year on April 12, 2024.  For up-to-date information on the Wooden Award, please visit www.woodenaward.com and follow the Wooden Award on Facebook at www.facebook.com/woodenaward and @WoodenAward on Twitter and Instagram.

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Wooden Award

Presented by Principal

2023-24 Men’s All American Team

* indicates player selected as a finalist for the 2023-2024 Wooden Award presented by Principal Men’s Player of the Year