Thomas, Kilpatrick on Wooden Top 25 list

Published Jan. 15, 2013 11:39 a.m. ET

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The John R. Wooden Award Midseason Top 25 was announced today by The Los Angeles Athletic Club on ESPNU. Selected by the Wooden Award National Advisory Board, the list is made up of 25 student-athletes who, based on their performances in November, December, and the beginning of January, are the frontrunners for college basketball’s most prestigious honor. The Women’s midseason list will be released next week.
Creighton forward Doug McDermott and Murray State guard Isaiah Canaan, both 2012 Wooden Award All Americans, return to the midseason list in 2013. Canaan averages 21.4 points per game for the 11-3 Racers. McDermott is the nation’s No. 3 scorer, at 23.1 ppg, and has taken the Bluejays to a 14-1 record to start the season. The players on the list are considered strong candidates for the official ballot. The National Ballot consists of approximately 20 top players who have proven to their universities that they are making progress toward graduation and maintaining at least a cumulative 2.0 GPA. Note that Lehigh’s C.J. McCollum was selected to the Midseason Top 25 for his play to date though he suffered a foot injury last week that will keep him out for approximately two months. 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 John R. Wooden Award Player of the Year presented by Wendy’s will be announced on ESPN during the Final Four Weekend in Atlanta. The 2013 Wooden Award Gala presented by Wendy’s will take place April 11-13, 2013, at The Los Angeles Athletic Club. The Gala will honor the Men’s and Women’s Wooden Award winners, All Americans and the Legends of Coaching Award winner, Kansas Head Coach Bill Self. The Big East had five players chosen to the list, followed by the Big 10 and Big 12 with four each. The ACC had three selections; the Mountain West and SEC had two; and the Summit League, WCC, Patriot League, Ohio Valley Conference, and Missouri Valley Conference each had one player selected. Three freshmen were selected: Anthony Bennett of UNLV, Ben McLemore of Kansas, and Marcus Smart of Oklahoma State. Missouri (Laurence Bowers and Phil Pressey), Kansas (McLemore and Jeff Withey) and Duke (Mason Plumlee and Seth Curry), all ranked in the Associated Press Top 10 this week, were the only programs with more than one player selected to the Midseason Top 25. Two 2012-13 midseason 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.

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