Cameron Boozer, AJ Dybantsa headline top 15 on Wooden Award ballot
Six freshmen — headlined by Duke star Cameron Boozer — are among the many 15 gamers named to the boys’s Wooden Award nationwide ballot, which was revealed Saturday on ESPN’s “College GameDay.”
Boozer, some of the embellished highschool gamers of the trendy period, has carried his successful methods to the school degree and enters the ultimate weekend of the common season because the perceived favourite for the award. From an analytical perspective, he has put collectively one of the best seasons of this century and is the chief of the nation’s No. 1 group.
The 6-foot-9 ahead from Miami is averaging 22.6 factors, 10.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists whereas capturing 58.3% from the sector and 40.4% from 3-point vary. He ranks first in ESPN Analytics’ MVP leaderboardwhereas additionally main the nation in Player Efficiency Rating.
Boozer has been probably the most constant participant for the reason that season started, by no means scoring fewer than 14 factors in a recreation or grabbing fewer than 5 rebounds. He has 16 double-doubles, together with 9 video games of no less than 20 factors and 10 rebounds.
If Boozer goes wins the award, he could be the fifth freshman to take house the {hardware}; Kevin Durant (2007), Anthony Davis (2012), Zion Williamson (2019) and Cooper Flagg (2025) are the one others to do it.
Other first-year gamers on the ballot embody BYU’s (*15*)Arkansas’ Darius Acuff Jr.., Houston’s Kingston Flemings and Illinois’ Keaton Wagler.
Dybantsa leads the nation in scoring at 24.8 factors per recreation, scoring no less than 20 factors in every of his final 9 video games. The 6-foot-9 wing had 43 factors towards Utah, 36 factors towards Baylor and averaged 27.8 factors on 66% capturing in December.
Acuff was the perfect guard within the nation in February, averaging 27.3 factors, 6.1 assists and three.6 rebounds. He ranks ninth within the nation in scoring (22.2 PPG) and seventeenth in assists (6.4). He’s on observe to turn out to be the primary participant since Pete Maravich in 1969-70 to steer the SEC in factors and assists.
The final freshman candidate is certainly one of two injured gamers on the ballot: North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson. Wilson was practically as productive as Boozer for a lot of the season, scoring 20 or extra factors in 17 of his first 23 video games, rating within the top 30 nationally in scoring and rebounding. He suffered a left hand fracture Feb. 10 then sustained a broken right thumb days after getting cleared for particular person exercises from the preliminary damage.
Texas Tech’s JT Toppin is the opposite injured star to make the lower. Toppin ranked within the top 10 nationally in scoring (21.8) and rebounding (10.8), however suffered a torn ACL in a Feb. 17 loss to Arizona State.
All 15 gamers on the nationwide ballot had been included on the late midseason top 20 record introduced in mid-February.
The males’s Wooden Award has been given out yearly since 1977, beginning with UCLA’s Marques Johnson.
Wooden Award top 15 ballot
Darius Acuff Jr.., Arkansas
Christian AndersonTexas Tech
Cameron Boozer,Duke
(*15*)BYU
Jeremy Fears Jr.., Michigan State
Kingston FlemingsHouston
Thomas HaughFlorida
Graham IkeGonzaga
Joshua JeffersonIowa State
Yaxel LendeborgMichigan
Labaron Philon Jr.., Alabama
Braden SmithPurdue
JT ToppinTexas Tech
Keaton WaglerIllinois
Caleb WilsonNorth Carolina
