Caleb Mills Named to John R. Wooden Award 2020-21 Preseason Top 50 Watch List

POSTED: December 1, 2020 -- 9:07 p.m. CT

Houston Cougars sophomore guard Caleb Mills was named to the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 Watch List. The list was chosen by a poll of national college basketball experts.

The players on the list are considered strong candidates for the 2021 John R. Wooden Award Player of the Year.

Players not chosen to the preseason list are still 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 meet or exceed the qualifications of the Wooden Award.

Nearly 1,000 voters will rank in order 10 of those 15 players when voting opens prior to 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 2021 John R. Wooden Award will be presented following the NCAA Tournament in April.

This was the latest preseason honor for Mills. In November, he was named to the Naismith Trophy Preseason Watch List and the Jerry West Award Watch List, presented annually to the nation's top shooting guard.

In October, he was picked as the American Athletic Conference's Preseason Player of the Year and was a unanimous First-Team selection in voting by the league's head coaches.

Mills began his first season of competition with the Cougars as a redshirt freshman in 2019-20 and made an immediate impact. Mills had eight 20-point games, including a career-high 27 points at Memphis in late February.

Mills led the Cougars with 13.2 points per game in 2019-20, joining Houston Cougars legend Rob Williams as the only freshmen in school history to lead their teams in scoring. Williams averaged 16.3 points per contest as a freshman in 1979-80.

He finished second among the Cougars with 50 3-pointers in his first collegiate season on the way to being named to the 2020 All-American Athletic Conference Second Team. Mills also earned a place on the league's All-Freshman Team, joining current teammate guard Marcus Sasser.

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John R. Wooden Award Announces 2020-21 Preseason Top 50 Watch List

# - indicates player was selected to the 2019-20 Wooden Award All American

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