Wooden Award Watch List Release

Here is the wooden award watch list  release which i hope processes clean at the bottom. 

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (November 14, 2017) – The John R. Wooden Award® presented by Wendy’s® announced the Women’s Preseason Top 30 on ESPN’s SportsCenter and ESPNW. The list is comprised of 30 student-athletes who are the early front-runners for college basketball’s most prestigious honor. The list is chosen by a preseason poll of national women’s college basketball media members.

2017 Wooden Award™ All Americans Napheesa Collier of Connecticut, Kelsey Mitchell of Ohio State, Katie Lou Samuelson of Connecticut, and A’ja Wilson of South Carolina headline this year’s preseason Top 30 list. The list also highlights stars from the 2017 NCAA Tournament: Wilson of NCAA National Champion South Carolina; NCAA Runner Up Mississippi State’s Victoria Vivians and Morgan William; Baylor’s Kalani Brown; California’s Kristine Anigwe; Connecticut’s Collier, Kia Nurse, Samuelson, and Gabby Williams; Duke’s Lexie Brown and Rebecca Greenwell; Louisville’s Asia Durr and Myisha Hines-Allen; Marquette’s Allazia Blockton; Missouri’s Sophie Cunningham; Notre Dame’s Arike Ogunbowale; Ohio State’s Mitchell; Stanford’s Brittany McPhee, Tennessee’s Jaime Nared and Mercedes Russell; Texas’ Ariel Atkins and Brooke McCarty; UCLA’s Monique Billings and Jordin Canada; and West Virginia’s Tynice Martin.

Several universities boast multiple players on the list: Connecticut (Collier, Nurse, Samuelson, Azurá Stevens, and Williams) leads the honors with five selections, followed by Duke (Brown and Greenwell), Louisville (Durr and Hines-Allen), Mississippi State (Vivians and William), Oregon (Ruthy Hebard and Sabrina Ionescu), Tennessee (Nared and Russell), Texas (Atkins and McCarty), and UCLA (Billings and Canada) with two selections each.

Seven conferences are represented on the Wooden Award Preseason Top 30 list. The ACC, Pac-12, and SEC each have six selections, followed by The American (5), Big 12 (4), Big Ten (2), and Big East (1). Of the student-athletes selected for the Preseason Top 30 list, 28 of the 30 are upperclassmen, including 19 seniors. Similar to the 2016 Preseason Top 30, no freshman made the list.

The players on the list are considered strong candidates for the 2018 John R. Wooden Award Women’s Player of the Year presented by Wendy’s. Players not chosen to the preseason list are eligible for the Wooden Award midseason list, late season list and the National Ballot. The National Ballot consists of 15 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. Voting will open prior to the start of the NCAA Tournament and will allow voters to take into consideration performance during early round games. The Wooden Award All-American Team will be announced the week of the “Elite Eight” round of the NCAA Tournament. The winner of the 2018 John R. Wooden Award will be presented during the ESPN College Basketball Awards presented by Wendy’s on Friday, April 6, 2018.

About the John R. Wooden Award

Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award is the most prestigious individual honor in college basketball. It is bestowed upon the nation’s best basketball player at an NCAA Division I university who has proven to his or her university that he or she is making progress towards graduation and maintaining a minimum cumulative 2.0 GPA. Previous winners include Larry Bird (’79), Michael Jordan (’84), Tim Duncan (’97), and last year’s recipients, Kelsey Plum of Washington and Frank Mason III of Kansas.

Since its inception, the John R. Wooden Award has contributed nearly one million dollars to the universities’ general scholarship fund in the names of the Wooden Award All American recipients and has sent more than 1,000 underprivileged children to week-long college basketball camps. Additionally, the John R. Wooden Award partners with the Special Olympics Southern California (SOSC) each year to host the Wooden Award Special Olympics Southern California Basketball Tournament. The day-long tournament brings together Special Olympics athletes and Wooden Award All Americans and coaches in attendance. It is hosted at the Los Angeles Athletic Clubduring the John R. Wooden Award Weekend.

The Legends of Coaching Award will be presented during the 4^thAnnual ESPN College Basketball Awards presented by Wendy’s, which will take place on Friday, April 6, 2018. For up-to-date information on the Wooden Award, please go to www.woodenaward.com and follow the Wooden Award on Facebook at www.facebook.com/woodenawardand @WoodenAward on Twitter and Instagram.

John R. Wooden Award Presented by Wendy’s

2017-18 Preseason Top 30

 

Name	School	Conference	Height	Class	Position
Kristine Anigwe	California	Pac-12	6-4	Jr.	C/F
Ariel Atkins	Texas	Big 12	5-11	Sr.	G
Monique Billings	UCLA	Pac-12	6-4	Sr.	F
Allazia Blockton	Marquette	Big East	6-0	Jr.	G
Kalani Brown	Baylor	Big 12	6-7	Jr.	C
Lexie Brown	Duke	ACC	5-9	Sr.	G
Jordin Canada	UCLA	Pac-12	5-6	Sr.	G
Napheesa Collier	Connecticut	The American	6-1	Jr.	F
Sophie Cunningham	Missouri	SEC	6-1	Jr.	G
Asia Durr	Louisville	ACC	5-10	Jr.	G
Katelynn Flaherty	Michigan	Big Ten	5-7	Sr.	G
Rebecca Greenwell	Duke	ACC	6-1	Sr.	G
Ruthy Hebard	Oregon	Pac-12	6-4	Soph.	F
Myisha Hines-Allen	Louisville	ACC	6-2	Sr.	F
Sabrina Ionescu	Oregon	Pac-12	5-10	Soph.	G
Tynice Martin	West Virginia	Big 12	5-11	Jr.	G
Brooke McCarty	Texas	Big 12	5-4	Sr.	G
Brittany McPhee	Stanford	Pac-12	6-0	Sr.	G
Kelsey Mitchell	Ohio State	Big Ten	5-8	Sr.	G
Jaime Nared	Tennessee	SEC	6-2	Sr.	G/F
Kia Nurse	Connecticut	The American	6-0	Sr.	G
Arike Ogunbowale	Notre Dame	ACC	5-8	Jr.	G
Mercedes Russell	Tennessee	SEC	6-6	Sr.	C
Katie Lou Samuelson	Connecticut	The American	6-3	Jr.	G/F
Azurá Stevens	Connecticut	The American	6-6	Sr.	G/F
Shakayla Thomas	Florida State	ACC	5-11	Sr.	F
Victoria Vivians	Mississippi State	SEC	6-1	Sr.	G
Morgan William	Mississippi State	SEC	5-5	Sr.	G
Gabby Williams	Connecticut	The American	5-11	Sr.	F
A'ja Wilson	South Carolina	SEC	6-5	Sr.	F