John R. Wooden Award Presented By Wendy's Announces 2021-22 Men's Preseason Top 50 Watch List



John R. Wooden Award Presented By Wendy's Announces 2021-22 Men's Preseason Top 50 Watch List

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (November 9, 2021) – The John R. Wooden Award® presented by Wendy’s® announced its Preseason Top 50 Watch List today on ESPN’s SportsCenter and on ESPN.com. The list was also highlighted during ESPN’s coverage of the Champions Classic. Chosen by a preseason poll of national college basketball experts, the list is comprised of 50 student-athletes who are the early front-runners for the most prestigious honors in college basketball, the Wooden Award All American Team™ and Most Outstanding Player Award.

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Three 2021 Wooden Award All Americans headline the Preseason Top 50: Kofi Cockburn (Illinois), Hunter Dickinson (Michigan), and Drew Timme (Gonzaga). The top three schools in the AP Top 25 and Coaches Poll each have three selections on the Preseason Top 50: Gonzaga (Chet Holmgren, Andrew Nembhard, and Timme), UCLA (Tyger Campbell, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Johnny Juzang), and Kansas (Ochai Agbaji, Remy Martin, and David McCormack). Several other schools boast multiple players on the list: Alabama (Jahvon Quinerly and Jaden Shackelford), Baylor (Adam Flagler and Matthew Mayer), Duke (Paolo Banchero and Mark Williams), Illinois (Cockburn and Andre Curbelo), Kentucky (Kellan Grady and TyTy Washington Jr.), Memphis (Emoni Bates and Jalen Duren), Michigan (Dickinson and Caleb Houstan), North Carolina (Armando Bacot and Dawson Garcia), and Purdue (Jaden Ivey and Trevion Williams).

Of the 50 players on the preseason list, 35 are upperclassmen, including 17 seniors. The recent trend of recognizing outstanding freshmen continues with nine name to the Preseason Top 50: Patrick Baldwin Jr. (UW-Milwaukee), Banchero (Duke), Bates (Memphis), Kennedy Chandler (Tennessee), Duren (Memphis), Holmgren (Gonzaga), Houstan (Michigan), Jabari Smith (Auburn), and Washington (Kentucky).

The Preseason Top 50 represents 12 conferences. The Big Ten leads all conferences with ten selections, followed by the SEC with eight, the Big 12 with seven, the ACC with six, the Pac-12 and American with five each, the WCC with three, the Big East with two, and the Atlantic 10, Summit League, Mountain West, and Horizon with one selection apiece.

The players on the list are considered strong candidates for the 2022 John R. Wooden Award Men’s Player of the Year presented by Wendy’s. Players not chosen to the preseason list are still eligible for the Wooden Award™ midseason list, late season list, and the National Ballot. The National Ballot consists of 15 top players who have proven to their universities that they meet or exceed the qualifications of the Wooden Award. Nearly 1,000 voters will rank in order 10 of those 15 players when voting opens prior to the NCAA Tournament and will allow voters to take into consideration performance during early round games. The Wooden Award All American Team™ will be announced the week of the “Elite Eight” round of the NCAA Tournament. The winner of the 2022 John R. Wooden Award will be presented by Wendy’s following the NCAA Tournament in April.

 

About the John R. Wooden Award

Created 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 American Teams for men and women and the annual selection of the Wooden Award Legends of Coaching recipient. Honorees have proven to their university that they meet or exceed the qualifications of the John R. Wooden Award as set forth by Coach Wooden and the Wooden Award Steering Committee, including making progress towards graduation and maintaining at least a 2.0 cumulative GPA. Previous winners include Larry Bird (’79), Michael Jordan (’84), Tim Duncan (’97), Kevin Durant (’07), Candace Parker (’07; ’08), Maya Moore (’09; ’11), Chiney Ogwumike (’14), Breanna Stewart (’15 and ’16) and last year’s recipients, Paige Bueckers of Connecticut and Luka Garza of Iowa.

Since its inception, the John R. Wooden Award has contributed nearly one million dollars to the universities’ general scholarship fund in the names of the Wooden Award All American recipients and has sent more than 1,000 underprivileged children to week-long college basketball 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. The day-long tournament brings together Special Olympics athletes and Wooden Award All Americans and coaches in attendance. It is hosted at the Los Angeles Athletic Club during the John R. Wooden Award Weekend.

For up-to-date information on the Wooden Award, please go to 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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John R. Wooden Award

Presented by Wendy’s

Preseason Top 50

 

Name

School

Conference

Height

Class

Position

Max Abmas

Oral Roberts

Summit League

6-0

Jr.

G

Ochai Agbaji

Kansas

Big 12

6-5

Sr.

G

Keve Aluma

Virginia Tech

ACC

6-9

Sr.

F

Eric Ayala

Maryland

Big Ten

6-5

Sr.

G

Armando Bacot

North Carolina

ACC

6-10

Jr.

F/C

Patrick Baldwin Jr.

UW-Milwaukee

Horizon

6-9

Fr.

G

Paolo Banchero

Duke

ACC

6-10

Fr.

F

Emoni Bates

Memphis

American

6-9

Fr.

F

Buddy Boeheim

Syracuse

ACC

6-6

Sr.

G

Matt Bradley

San Diego State

Mountain West

6-4

Sr.

G

Tyger Campbell

UCLA

Pac-12

5-11

Jr.

G

Marcus Carr

Texas

Big 12

6-2

Sr.

G

Julian Champagnie

St. John's

Big East

6-8

Jr.

G/F

Kennedy Chandler

Tennessee

SEC

6-0

Fr.

G

Kofi Cockburn*

Illinois

Big Ten

7-0

Jr.

C

Andre Curbelo

Illinois

Big Ten

6-1

Soph

G

Kendric Davis

SMU

American

6-0

Sr.

G

Hunter Dickinson*

Michigan

Big Ten

7-1

Soph

C

Jalen Duren

Memphis

American

6-11

Fr.

C

Tyson Etienne

Wichita State

American

6-2

Soph

G

Adam Flagler

Baylor

Big 12

6-3

Jr.

G

Dawson Garcia

North Carolina

ACC

6-11

Soph

F

Collin Gillespie

Villanova

Big East

6-3

Sr.

G

Kellan Grady

Kentucky

SEC

6-5

Sr.

G

Ron Harper Jr.

Rutgers

Big Ten

6-6

Sr.

G/F

Chet Holmgren

Gonzaga

WCC

7-0

Fr.

C

Caleb Houstan

Michigan

Big Ten

6-8

Fr.

G/F

Jaden Ivey

Purdue

Big Ten

6-4

Soph

G

Trayce Jackson-Davis

Indiana

Big Ten

6-9

Jr.

F

Jaime Jaquez Jr.

UCLA

Pac-12

6-7

Jr.

G/F

Johnny Juzang

UCLA

Pac-12

6-7

Jr.

G

E.J. Liddell

Ohio State

Big Ten

6-7

Jr.

F

Kyle Lofton

St. Bonaventure

Atlantic 10

6-3

Sr.

G

Remy Martin

Kansas

Big 12

6-0

Sr.

G

Matthew Mayer

Baylor

Big 12

6-9

Sr.

G/F

David McCormack

Kansas

Big 12

6-10

Sr.

F

Isaiah Mobley

USC

Pac-12

6-10

Jr.

F

Iverson Molinar

Mississippi State

SEC

6-3

Jr.

G

Andrew Nembhard

Gonzaga

WCC

6-5

Sr.

G

Scotty Pippen Jr.

Vanderbilt

SEC

6-3

Jr.

G

Jahvon Quinerly

Alabama

SEC

6-1

Jr.

G

Will Richardson

Oregon

Pac-12

6-5

Sr.

G

Marcus Sasser

Houston

American

6-2

Jr.

G

Jaden Shackelford

Alabama

SEC

6-3

Jr.

G

Terrence Shannon Jr.

Texas Tech

Big 12

6-6

Jr.

G

Jabari Smith

Auburn

SEC

6-10

Fr.

F

Drew Timme*

Gonzaga

WCC

6-10

Jr.

F

TyTy Washington Jr.

Kentucky

SEC

6-3

Fr.

G

Trevion Williams

Purdue

Big Ten

6-10

Sr.

F

Mark Williams

Duke

ACC

7-0

Soph

C

 

* indicates player selected as a 2020-21 Wooden Award All American


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