LOS ANGELES, Calif. (November 15, 2022) – 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.

The 2022 Wooden Award Winner Oscar Tshiebwe (Kentucky) headlines the Preseason Top 50 along with two-time Wooden Award All American Drew Timme (Gonzaga) and 2021 Wooden Award All American Hunter Dickinson (Michigan).  Three schools lead with three selections on the Preseason Top 50: Duke (Dereck Lively II, Jeremy Roach and Dariq Whitehead), Kentucky (Tshiebwe, Cason Wallace and Sahvir Wheeler), and North Carolina (Armando Bacot, RJ Davis and Caleb Love). Several other schools boast multiple players on the list: Baylor (Adam Flagler and Keyonte George), Creighton (Ryan Kalkbrenner and Baylor Scheierman), Gonzaga (Julian Strawther and Timme), Kansas (Kevin McCullar Jr. and Jalen Wilson), Miami (FL) (Nijel Pack and Isaiah Wong), Texas (Timmy Allen and Tyrese Hunter), and UCLA (Tyger Campbell and Jaime Jaquez Jr.).

Of the 50 players on the preseason list, 38 are upperclassmen, including 24 seniors. The recent trend of recognizing outstanding freshmen continues with seven named to the Preseason Top 50: George (Baylor), Lively II (Duke), Brandon Miller (Alabama), Nick Smith Jr. (Arkansas), Wallace (Kentucky), Whitehead (Duke), and Cam Whitmore (Villanova).

The Preseason Top 50 represents 14 conferences. The ACC leads all conferences with ten selections, followed by the Big 12 and SEC with seven each, the Big East, Big Ten and Pac-12 with five each, the American, Mountain West and WCC with two each, and the ASUN, Atlantic 10, Conference USA, Horizon and Summit League with one selection apiece.

The players on the list are considered strong candidates for the 2023 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 2023 John R. Wooden Award will be presented in Los Angeles 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 America Teams for men and women and the annual selection of the Wooden Award Legend 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), and last year’s recipients, Aliyah Boston of South Carolina and Oscar Tshiebwe of Kentucky.

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.

The Legends of Coaching Award will be presented along with the Wooden Award Men’s and Women’s Players of the Year on April 7, 2023. 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.

###

John R. Wooden Award

Presented by Wendy’s

Preseason Top 50

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

*   indicates player selected as a 2021-22 Wooden Award All American

** indicates player selected as the 2021-22 Wooden Award Winner