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Bradford, Williams Among Twenty Wooden Award Finalists
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Illinois junior Cory Bradford, along with teammate Frank Williams, were named among 20 finalists for the John R. Wooden award.
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March 3, 2001
LOS ANGELES - Twenty student-athletes have been selected to the 2001 John R. Wooden Award ballot, John R. Wooden Award Chairman Richard "Duke" Llewellyn announced today at The Los Angeles Athletic Club. The 25th Annual Silver Anniversary John R. Wooden Award Trophy will be presented to the college basketball player of the year on Friday, April 6, 2001, at 7:00 p.m. EST during a live hour-long presentation on FOX Sports Net.
More than 1000 Wooden Award voters will select the 10-player Wooden Award All-American Team and determine who will receive the Wooden Award Trophy as the outstanding collegiate basketball player in the United States. Ballots will be due back from the voters by Monday, March 26 at 3:00 p.m. EST/ Noon PST. The announcement of the 10-player Wooden All-America team will be made on Fox Sports Net newscasts at 10:00 p.m. in all time zones on March 27.
Two returning Wooden Award All-Americans were named to the 2001 Wooden Award ballot, seniors Troy Murphy of Notre Dame and Shane Battier of Duke. Five schools have two players on the Wooden Award ballot: Stanford (Jarron Collins, Casey Jacobsen), Duke (Battier, Jason Williams), North Carolina (Joseph Forte, Brendan Haywood), Michigan State (Charlie Bell, Jason Richardson) and Illinois (Cory Bradford, Frank Williams). The Big 10 Conference leads the Wooden Award list with six representatives, followed by the ACC and Pac-10 each with four players on the ballot, the Big East with three, SEC with two and West Coast Conference with one. Six seniors, eight juniors and six sophomores made the ballot.
"The voting was extremely close this year to slate the ballot," said Llewellyn. "It really illustrates the depth of talent across the country. I think the Wooden National Advisory Board did an excellent job and each of the twenty students-athletes on the ballot met the criteria established for consideration for The John R. Wooden Award. It will be difficult for our voters to narrow the list down to the 10-player Wooden Award All-America team and NCAA Tournament play will have a big impact."
Many of the 1,059 members of the media and college basketball experts will be casting their ballots via the Internet. Voters will select 10 players from the 20 student-athletes listed on the ballot, and rank them from 1 to 10. Performance in the regular season, conference tournaments and postseason will be taken into account, as well as a player's character and contribution to the team. Three features of the Wooden Award make it unique: A player named to the Wooden Award ballot must be certified by his university to be maintaining a minimum cumulative 2.0 grade average at that school. The player must be making progress toward graduation. Voting continues through the Monday after the "Elite Eight" games of the NCAA Tournament.
The Award presentation, which will include the introduction of the Wooden Award All-America team and the presentation of the Legends of Coaching Award to Arizona's Lute Olson, will be held at The Los Angeles Athletic Club on Friday, April 6, 2001 at 7:00 p.m. EST/ 4:00 p.m. PST and will be televised nationally on Fox Sports Net for the fourth straight year. Tickets for the black tie John R. Wooden Award Presentation Gala, to be held at 6:00 p.m. at the Biltmore Hotel following the televised announcement, are $150 and may be obtained by calling The Los Angeles Athletic Club at (213) 630-5255.
The Award is named for John R. Wooden, the three-time college basketball All-American, 1932 Player of the Year from Purdue and ten-time national championship coach at UCLA. The Wooden Award has a special status in college basketball in that it brings together one of the greatest contributor's to college basketball with the nation's top student-athletes. Players in attendance at the Award are given the opportunity to meet Coach Wooden and take in some of his legendary wisdom.
This year, fans will have a chance to vote for whom they think will be the Wooden Award winner, in partnership with Harris Interactive. Fans can log on to the official Wooden Award site, www.WoodenAward.com, (click on the Fan Ballot icon) to vote for the player they think will win. Voting begins Monday March 5 at www.WoodenAward.com.
The Los Angeles Athletic Club, one of the nation's finest and oldest private athletic clubs, founded the John R. Wooden Award in 1977. Past winners include Marques Johnson, Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan, David Robinson and Larry Bird. Kenyon Martin of Cincinnati won the 2000 Wooden Award.
The Los Angeles Athletic Club, founded in 1880, is located at 7th and Olive Streets in one of Los Angeles' landmark buildings. The current facility, built in 1912, has 12 stories and more than 150,000 square feet of space including 72 European-style hotel rooms and four unique dining experiences. The Club's athletic facilities include two indoor swimming pools, three fitness centers, a basketball/volleyball court, a tartan running track, handball/squash/racquetball courts, an aerobics studio, state-of-the-art weight training and cardio equipment and steam, sauna, tanning and massage areas. In addition to the Wooden Award, The Club's athletic heritage includes a tradition of Olympic success, Club members have won more Olympic medals than any other club contingent in the nation, more than 100, and The Club currently sponsors the national championship caliber Junior Olympic and Open level volleyball teams.
2000-2001 John R. Wooden Award Ballot
| Player | Ht. | Yr. | Pos. | School |
| Shane Battier | 6-8 | Sr. | F | Duke |
| Charlie Bell | 6-3 | Sr. | G | Michigan St. |
| Cory Bradford | 6-3 | Jr. | G | Illinois |
| Michael Bradley | 6-10 | Jr. | F | Villanova |
| Casey Calvary | 6-8 | Sr. | F | Gonzaga |
| Jarron Collins | 6-11 | Sr. | F | Stanford |
| Reggie Evans | 6-8 | Jr. | F | Iowa |
| Joseph Forte | 6-4 | So. | G | North Carolina |
| Udonis Haslem | 6-8 | Jr. | C | Florida |
| Brendan Haywood | 7-0 | Sr. | C | North Carolina |
| Casey Jacobsen | 6-6 | So. | G/F | Stanford |
| Jason Kapono | 6-8 | So. | F | UCLA |
| Mike Kelley | 6-3 | Sr. | G | Wisconsin |
| Troy Murphy | 6-11 | Jr. | F | Notre Dame |
| Tayshaun Prince | 6-9 | Jr. | G/F | Kentucky |
| Jason Richardson | 6-6 | So. | G/F | Michigan State |
| Preston Shumpert | 6-6 | Jr. | G | Syracuse |
| Frank Williams | 6-3 | So. | G | Illinois |
| Jason Williams | 6-2 | So. | G | Duke |
| Michael Wright | 6-7 | Jr. | F | Arizona |
(Players listed alphabetically)
The Silver Anniversary John R. Wooden Award winner will be announced April 6, 2001, at 7:00 p.m. EST/4:00 p.m. PST on FOX Sports Net. The 10-player Wooden All-America team will be announced March 27, 2001 on Fox Sports Net's 10:00 p.m. newscasts in all time zones.
