The Los Angeles Athletic Club has announced its John R. Wooden Award Midseason Top 25 List, with four student-athletes from the Big 12 making the cut.
Chosen by a poll of national college basketball experts, the list is comprised of 25 student-athletes who are the frontrunners for the prestigious individual honor, based on their performances during the first half of the 2015-2016 season.
Iowa State’s Georges Niang, Kansas’ Perry Ellis and Wayne Selden Jr. and Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield make the list for the Big 12. Kansas was one of only four schools to have multiple players.
Niang is having a career year for the Cyclones, averaging 19.9 points and 6.7 rebounds. He is shooting 55.3 percent from the floor and 40.3 percent from 3-point range. He has seven games this season with 20 or more points, including a pair of 30-point games.
Ellis is the only player in the Big 12 to rank in the top six in scoring, fourth at 16.3 points per game, and rebounding, sixth at 6.9 boards per contest. The Wichita, Kansas senior forward has five games with 20-plus points this season, including two of his last three outings.
Fellow Jayhawk Selden is seventh in the Big 12 with a 15.2 scoring average and is second in the league in 3-point field goals made at 2.7 per contest. The Roxbury, Massachusetts junior guard is seventh in the conference in field goal percentage at 52.7 percent and fourth in 3-point field goal percentage at 50.6 percent.
Hield currently leads the Big 12 in scoring, averaging 26.6 points per game, good for second in the nation. Hield has been named Big 12 Player of the Week three times this season, including this past week when he averaged an astounding 38.5 points in two games to go along with 8.0 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game. His strong play continued this week, scoring 26 points and grabbing seven boards in a two-point Sooners’ win against rival Oklahoma State.
The players on the list are considered strong candidates for the 2016 John R. Wooden Award. The leading candidates will be further pared to 20 top players in early February. Fifteen top players who have proven to their universities that they are also making progress toward graduation and maintaining at least a cumulative 2.0 GPA will be submitted to the voters on the ballot prior to the NCAA Tournament.
Every year, players have made the ballots that are not on the preseason or midseason lists. Voters are permitted to take into consideration the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament when casting the ballot. The 10-man Wooden Award All-American Team will be announced the week of the “Elite Eight” round of the NCAA Tournament.
The 40th annual presentation of the John R. Wooden Award will be the anchor presentation of the ESPN College Basketball Awards Show presented by Wendy’s. The men’s and women’s Wooden All-American Teams will be honored during the ceremony, as well as the 2016 Legends of Coaching Award, which will be presented to Tubby Smith, Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Texas Tech. The event will take place the weekend of April 7-9, 2016.
Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award program features the most prestigious individual honors in college basketball. The Wooden Award Trophy is bestowed upon the nation’s best player at an institution of higher education who has proven to his or her university that he or she is making progress toward graduation while maintaining a minimum cumulative 2.0 GPA. The unique Wooden Award trophy is presented to a man and woman each year.