The members of the John R. Wooden
Award advisory committee had a deadline of Monday to submit their choices as the
top 30 “midseason” candidates for the award.
I’m one of those members and here
are my 30 selections, as well as a list of the players that I gave serious
consideration to before painfully delegating them to the “Just missed”
category.
So, get ready to carve me up, SIDs,
coaches and friends of players not selected to either list:
Top 30 John R. Wooden
Award nominations
Point guards: Aaron Brooks
(6-0, Sr., Oregon), Dominic James (5-11, So., Marquette), Darren Collison (6-1, So., UCLA), Taurean Green (6-0, Jr., Florida), Acie Law (6-3, Sr., Texas A&M), Sean Singletary (6-0, Jr.,
Virginia).
Wings: Arron Afflalo (6-4,
Jr., UCLA), Morris Almond (6-6, Sr., Rice), Corey Brewer (6-7,
Jr., Florida), Russell Carter (6-4, Sr., Notre Dame), Kevin Durant
(6-9, Fr., Texas), A.J. Graves (6-1, Jr., Butler), Jarrius Jackson
(6-1, Sr., Texas Tech), Chris Lofton (6-2, Jr., Tennessee), Torrell Martin (6-5, Sr., Winthrop), Curtis Sumpter (6-7, Sr., Villanova),
Al Thornton (6-7, Sr., Florida State), Alando Tucker (6-5, Sr.,
Wisconsin), Marcus Williams (6-7, So., Arizona),
Posts: Mario Boggan (6-7,
Sr., Oklahoma State), Glen Davis (6-7, Jr., LSU), Nick Fazekas
(6-11, Sr., Nevada), Aaron Gray (7-0, Sr., Pittsburgh), Tyler Hansbrough (6-8, So., North Carolina), Josh McRoberts (6-10, So.,
Duke), Joakim Noah (6-11, Jr., Florida), Greg Oden (7-0, Fr., Ohio State), D.J. White (6-9, So., Indiana), Brandan Wright (6-9, Fr.,
North Carolina), Julian Wright (6-8, So., Kansas).
Just missed: Blake Ahearn
(Missouri State), Jared Dudley (Boston College), Caleb Green (Oral
Roberts), Josh Heytvelt (Gonzaga), Al Horford (Florida), Jared Jordan (Marist), Courtney Lee (Western Kentucky), Randolph Morris (Kentucky), Demarcus Nelson (Duke), Demetris Nichols
(Syracuse), Mustafa Shakur (Arizona), Jason Smith (Colorado State), Rodney Stuckey (Eastern Washington) and Nick Young
(USC).
Inducted into the USBWA Hall of
Fame in April, 2005, Frank Burlison is Scout.com’s national basketball expert and is
also a columnist for the Long Beach (Calif.) Press-Telegram. He can be reached at
frank.burlison@presstelegram.com. Read more of Burlison’s pieces at
www.frankhoops.com