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

POSTED: December 1, 2020 -- 2:58 p.m. CT

The John R. Wooden Award® announced its Preseason Top 50 Watch List today on ESPN's SportsCenter and on ESPN.com. Chosen by a preseason poll of national college basketball experts, the list is comprised of 50 student-athletes who are the early front-runners for the most prestigious honors in college basketball, the Wooden Award All American Team™ and Most Outstanding Player Award.

Several schools boast multiple players on the list: Baylor (Jared Butler and MaCio Teague), Duke (Matthew Hurt and Jalen Johnson), Gonzaga (Corey Kispert and Drew Timme), Illinois (Kofi Cockburn and Ayo Dosunmu), Iowa (Luka Garza and Joe Wieskamp), Kentucky (Brandon Boston Jr. and Olivier Sarr), LSU (Javonte Smart and Trendon Watford), Stanford (Oscar da Silva and Ziaire Williams), Tennessee (John Fulkerson and Yves Pons), Villanova (Collin Gillespie and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl), and Virginia (Kihei Clark and Sam Hauser) each have two selections on the Preseason Top 50.

Of the 50 players on the preseason list, 32 are upperclassmen, including 20 seniors. The recent trend of recognizing outstanding freshmen continues with seven named to the list: Scottie Barnes (Florida State), Boston Jr. (Kentucky), Greg Brown (Texas), Cade Cunningham (Oklahoma State), Johnson (Duke), Evan Mobley (USC), Williams (Stanford).

The Preseason Top 50 represents 11 conferences. The Big Ten leads all conferences with ten selections, followed by the ACC and SEC with seven apiece, the Big 12 and PAC-12 with 6 each, the Big East with four, the Atlantic 10 and WCC with three apiece, the American with two selections, and the Mountain West and Conference USA with one selection each.

The players on the list are considered strong candidates for the 2021 John R. Wooden Award Men's 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.

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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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