Livescore
The Wooden Award pared its contenders to 15 finalists on Saturday, led by star Big Ten big men Zach Edey of Purdue and Trayce Jackson-Davis of Indiana. The list also features a host of versatile forwards, including Kansas’ Jalen Wilson and Kansas State’s Keyontae Johnson. The group of 15 players shrunk from the top 20 watch list revealed in January, with the winner expected to be named at the Final Four in late March.
Edey is the frontrunner to win the award after a standout season for the No. 5 Boilermakers. He leads the sport in rebounding and Player Efficiency Rating, and his 22.1 points per game ranks ninth in the country. Earlier last week, he helped lead Purdue to its first outright Big Ten regular-season title since 2017.
The list of finalists also included mid-major representation this year with Detroit Mercy’s Antoine Davis, the second-leading scorer in NCAA history, making the list. Davis finished three points shy of tying Pete Maravich’s all-time scoring record earlier this week but leads the nation in scoring at 28.2 points per game.
Notably excluded from the reduced list is Alabama freshman star Brandon Miller, whose curious omission comes in the aftermath of recent revelations connecting him to the Jan. 15 murder of Jamea Jonae Harris. Miller allegedly delivered a gun to former teammate Darius Miles before it was used by Miles’ friend, Michael Lynn Davis, to kill Harris. Miller isn’t facing charges in the case and his counsel has maintained he did not see or handle the gun used in the murder.
Here’s a look at the finalists for this year:
2023 John R. Wooden Award finalists
- Zach Edey, Purdue
- Trayce Jackson-Davis, Indiana
- Keyontae Johnson, Kansas State
- Jalen Wilson, Kansas
- Antoine Davis, Detroit Mercy
- Jaime Jaquez Jr., UCLA
- Isaiah Wong, Miami
- Azuolas Tubelis, Arizona
- Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky
- Armando Bacot, North Carolina
- Mike Miles Jr., TCU
- Kris Murray, Iowa
- Jalen Pickett, Penn State
- Drew Timme, Gonzaga
- Marcus Sasser, Houston
Miller’s absence is notable since he’s the leading scorer in the SEC, and he had top-five odds to win the award at Caesars Sportsbook before it was taken off the board at betting sites Saturday. He leads all freshmen in college basketball this season in scoring and 3-point shooting percentage among major conference players and is the star of No. 2 Alabama, which is projected to potentially finish as a No. 1 seed entering the NCAA Tournament later this month. He averages 19.6 points and 8.0 rebounds per game for the Crimson Tide, who last week secured the outright SEC conference championship in the regular season for the second time in three seasons.
Read the full article here
