The Sporting News has named Oklahoma’s Willie Warren its preseason national player of the year.
Warren, a 6-4, 203-pound sophomore who is considered by many college basketball analysts as the country's best shooting guard, is coming off a 2008-09 campaign that saw him claim Big 12 Freshman of the Year honors and earn freshman All-America acclaim.
Warren averaged 14.6 points and 3.1 assists per contest for a 30-6 OU squad that reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. He scored at least 20 points seven times and topped the 30-point mark twice. He also set school freshman records for starts (34) and 3-point makes (67), and shot a team-high .372 from behind the arc.
"I'm not going to lie, being named preseason player of the year is pretty cool," said Warren before OU's Friday afternoon practice. "I'm extremely honored by it. I'm just looking forward to a fun year with my teammates and coaches. We've got a lot of really talented players and we're going to have a great season."
Only one player in school history scored more points as a true freshman than Warren did last year (Wayman Tisdale, 1982-83). Warren finished the season with 525 points and is looking to join Tisdale, Alvan Adams and Blake Griffin as the only Sooners to score 1,000 points by the end of their true sophomore season.
