LOS ANGELES, CA (March 9, 2024) – The Los Angeles Athletic Club announced its 2024 Men’s National Ballot for the John R. Wooden Award® presented by Principal® today on ESPN College GameDay. Selected by the Wooden Award National Advisory Board, the National Ballot consists of 15 student-athletes who are candidates for the Wooden Award All American Team and Wooden Award Trophy as the most outstanding college basketball player in the United States.

The SEC leads all conferences with four selections, followed by the Big 12 with three, the ACC and Big East with two each, and the Atlantic 10, Big Ten, Mountain West and Pac-12 with one selection apiece.

All balloted players have been certified by their university to meet or exceed the qualifications for the Wooden Award as set forth by Coach Wooden when the Award was established. The qualifications include: candidates must exhibit strength of character, both on and off the court; candidates must be full-time students in an accredited NCAA college or university; candidates must be making progress toward graduation and have a cumulative 2.00 grade point average since enrolling in their school; candidates must contribute to team effort; candidates must excel in both offense and defense; and candidates should be considered on their performance over the course of the entire season.

Voting will take place from March 18^th to March 25^th, and voters take into consideration a player’s entire season of play, as well as the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament. The finalists for the 2024 Wooden Award presented by Principal will be announced on April 2^nd.

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 National Ballot

# indicates player selected as 2020-21 Wooden Award All American

* indicates player selected as 2022-23 Wooden Award Winner