Finalists for Wooden award named ahead of Final Four weekend

by:Austin Brezina•03/30/22•

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The five finalists for the Wooden award were announced on Wednesday ahead of the weekend’s Final Four matchups. The John R. Wooden award is given to the collegiate basketball Player of the Year annually since 1976. Previous winners of the prestigious award include Duke‘s Zion Williamson, Kentucky‘s Anthony Davis and Oklahoma‘s Blake Griffin.

Wooden award finalists named

The five finalists for the Wooden award are Ochai Agbaji from Kansas, Wisconsin‘s Johnny Davis, Iowa‘s Keegan Murray, Gonzaga’s Drew Timme and Kentucky‘s Oscar Tshiebwe. Of the group, Agbaji’s NCAA Tournament run is the only one still underway as Kansas prepares to face Villanova on Saturday.

The Wooden award is named for John R. Wooden, the legendary college head coach of UCLA from 1948 to 1975. Wooden was named college basketball Player of the Year in 1932, before beginning his coaching career. Wooden won ten national championships and made 12 Final Four appearances over his coaching career, including seven-straight titles. All ten of Wooden’s championships were won during a 12 year stretch, a level of dominance that earned him a place in college basketball’s history books.

Agbaji has emerged as one of the front-runners for the award as he has led Kansas in scoring with 18.9 points per game as they have reached the Final Four for the first time since 2018. The early favorite for the award seemed to be Tshiebwe as he led the nation in rebounding at 15.1 boards per game, alongside 17.4 points and 1.6 blocks. Tshiebwe’s rebounding numbers are the highest in college basketball since 1978, when Monti Davis averaged 16.2 rebounds per game.

However, Kentucky’s first round loss to the incredible 15-seed Saint Peter’s in the NCAA Tournament could impact how the final vote goes.

Alongside the reveal of the finalists is the Wooden Award All-American Team, comprised of the top-ten players who received the most votes for the Wooden Award. The ten-player team consists of the five finalists, as well as Kofi Cockburn from Illinois, Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren, Purdue’s Jaden Ivey, Arizona’s Bennedict Mathurin and Auburn’s Jabari Smith.