Wooden Award Watch List
STANFORD, Calif.- Senior Chasson Randle was one of 50 student-athletes named to the Wooden Award Presented by Wendy’s Preseason Top 50, as announced by The Los Angeles Athletic Club on Monday morning and selected by a preseason poll of national college basketball experts.
The players on the list are considered strong candidates for the 2015 John R. Wooden Award Presented by Wendy's. The Wooden Award National Advisory Board will select 25 players for the midseason list in early January. The leading candidates will be further pared to 20 in early February.
Randle is also on the watch list for the Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award, as announced by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
A 2014 All-Pac-12 First Team honoree who sparked Stanford’s 2014 NCAA Tournament upset of Kansas, Randle stands 651 points away from passing Todd Lichti (2,336) as the school’s all-time scoring leader and averaged a team-high 18.8 points last year while shooting 47.4 percent overall and 76.7 percent from the foul line.
A two-time Pac-12 All-Academic honoree and 2014 NABC Honors Court pick, Randle completed his undergraduate degree in African and African-American Studies one year ahead of his class. Randle, who carries a 3.30 cumulative GPA, is currently working on a master’s in psychology, joining Anthony Brown and Stefan Nastic as fellow seniors also completing coursework toward their master’s degrees.
Fifteen 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 will be placed on the ballot and submitted to voters prior to the NCAA Tournament and voting will take into account play during the opening rounds of the tournament. The Wooden Award All American Team will be announced the week of the Elite Eight round of the NCAA Tournament.
About the John R. Wooden Award
The 39th 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 2015 will go to San Diego State Head Men’s Basketball Coach Steve Fisher. The event will take place the weekend of April 10-12, 2015.
Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award is the most prestigious individual honor in college basketball. It is bestowed upon the nation’s best player at an institution of higher education who has proven to his or her university that he or she is making progress toward graduation and maintaining a minimum cumulative 2.0 GPA. Previous winners include such notables as Larry Bird (’79), Michael Jordan (’84), Tim Duncan (’97), Candace Parker (’07 and ’08), Kevin Durant (’09) and Maya Moore of Connecticut (’09 and ‘11). Creighton’s Doug McDermott won the 2014 Wooden Award Presented by Wendy’s.
Since its inception, the John R. Wooden Award has contributed close to a million dollars to universities’ general scholarship fund in the names of the All American recipients. The Award has also sent more than 1,000 underprivileged children to week-long college basketball camps in the Award’s name. Additionally, the John R. Wooden Award partners with Special Olympics Southern California (SOSC) each year to host the Wooden Award Special Olympics Southern California Basketball Tournament. The day-long tournament, which brings together Special Olympic athletes and the All Americans, takes place at The Los Angeles Athletic Club the weekend of the John R. Wooden Award Ceremony.