Davies named to Wooden Award Preseason Top 50

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Athletic Club has announced its Preseason Top 50 today for the John R. Wooden Award on ESPN.com and BYU senior forward Brandon Davies is among the honorees. Chosen by a preseason poll of national college basketball media members, the list is comprised of 50 student-athletes who, based on last year’s individual performance and team records, are the early front-runners for college basketball’s most prestigious honor.

Davies, a preseason All-WCC candidate, is coming off a junior season in which he averaged 15.2 points and 7.7 rebounds while shooting .516 from the field. The Provo, Utah, native added 47 blocks and 51 steals while leading BYU to a 26-9 record and a trip to the 2012 NCAA Tournament. Davies was at his best in the second half of the season as he upped his averages to 18.0 points and 8.1 rebounds during league play and earned All-WCC honors.

BYU basketball boasts two Wooden Award winners in Danny Ainge and Jimmer Fredette. Ainge won the award in 1981 when he averaged 24.4 points and 4.8 rebounds while leading the Cougars to the Elite Eight. Fredette received the honor in 2011 after leading BYU to the Sweet 16 and a program-record 32 wins while taking home the NCAA scoring title at 28.9 points per game.

Creighton junior forward Doug McDermott was a Wooden Award All American a year ago after an outstanding sophomore campaign in which he ranked first nationally in field goals made, third in scoring, and seventh in field goal percentage. On the season, he averaged 22.9 points and 8.5 rebounds, taking the Blue Jays to a Missouri Valley Conference title and an NCAA Tournament appearance.

Transfers, freshmen and medical redshirts are not eligible for the Preseason Top 50. The players on the list are considered strong candidates for the midseason list and the official voting ballot, both of which are open to freshman and transfer students. The National Ballot consists of approximately 20 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.  The Wooden Award All American Team, consisting of the nation’s top 10 players, will be announced the week of the “Elite Eight” round of the NCAA Tournament.

The 37th annual Wooden Award ceremony will honor the Men's and Women's Wooden Award winners, and will include the presentation of the Wooden Award All American Teams and the Legends of Coaching Award, which in 2013 will go to Kansas Head Coach Bill Self. The event will take place the weekend of April 12-13, 2013.

Nine upperclassmen return to the Preseason Top 50 list from a year ago: Allen Crabbe of California; Aaron Craft of Ohio State; Tim Hardaway, Jr. of Michigan; Elias Harris of Gonzaga; Solomon Hill of Arizona; Ray McCallum of Detroit; McDermott; Peyton Siva of Louisville; and Patric Young of Florida.

Louisville, a Final Four team a year ago, was the only school with three players on the Preseason Top 50 (Siva, Gorgui Dieng and Chane Behanan). Seven schools had two players named to the list: Duke (Seth Curry and Mason Plumlee), Florida (Young and Kenny Boynton), Indiana (Christian Watford and Cody Zeller), Kansas (Elijah Johnson and Jeff Withey), Michigan (Hardaway, Jr. and Trey Burke), North Carolina State (Lorenzo Brown and C.J. Leslie) and Ohio State (Aaron Craft and Deshaun Thomas).

Two 2012-13 preseason honorees are younger brothers of previous John R. Wooden All Americans. Duke’s Seth Curry is the younger brother of 2009 Wooden Award All American Stephen Curry of Davidson. Cody Zeller of Indiana is the younger brother of 2012 Wooden Award All American Tyler Zeller of North Carolina.

Players listed alphabetically

*indicates player chosen to the 2012 Wooden All American Team
Based on a preseason poll

Award winner honored April 5, 2012 at The Los Angeles Athletic Club.