The national vote for the John R. Wooden Award – given to the best basketball player in college – was revealed on Saturday, with 15 players, including Luka Garza from Iowa and Cade Cunningham from Oklahoma, among those who appear on the list.
Garza, the second place winner of last season’s wood award for Obi Toppin, has fulfilled his status as the first leader in wood throughout the 2020-21 campaign. The 6-meter and 11-meter center enters the final weekend of the regular season with an average of 23.9 points per game, the best in the Big Ten, to go along with 8.4 rebounds per contest. Garza’s fifth-ranked Hawkeyes has spent most of the season in the top 10 AP and is the No. 2 seed in the latest screening of Joe Lunardi’s NCAA tournament heading into the regular season finale. Sunday with Wisconsin.
Also in the award mix is Cunningham, whose sensational freshman season helped solidify him as the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. The 6-foot, 8-point guard averages 19.7 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game for a 17-7 Cowboys team that looks set to reach the NCAA tournament for the first time in 2017.
Other notable members of the wooden vote include Villanova goalkeeper Collin Gillespie, who retained his place on the list, despite suffering a knee injury at the end of the season in a victory over Creighton on Wednesday. Gillespie averaged 14.0 points and 4.6 assists per season for a Villanova team that won the Big East regular season title.
Ohio State striker EJ Liddell was the only player in the final ballot who did not appear on the previous wooden watch list announced in early February. Liddell averages 15.9 points and 6.7 rebounds per game for an Ohio State team that has a No. 1 pick. 2 in Lunardi’s latest Bracketology update.
Abandoned from the list since the February update were James Bouknight of UConn, Marcus Carr of Minnesota, Justin Champagnie of Pittsburgh, Quentin Grimes of Houston, Ron Harper Jr. of Rutgers and Carlik Jones of Louisville.