Wooden Award Watch List

[Ichabod Drain]

The Wooden award watch list was released earlier today.

This apparently is the first year freshman and transfers have been elligible, which is great for us. Duke had three players make the list in Parker, Hood, and Sulaimon. This is pretty amazing considering they are all underclassmen.

Other notables are McAdoo from UNC, the three freshman from Kansas (Wiggins, Selden and Embiid), and four Kentucky players (Randle, Young, An. Harrison, and Cauley-Stein).

The complete list can be found here:

http://www.woodenaward.com/?p=1460

Congrats to our guys!

[arnie]

The Wooden award watch list was released earlier today.

This apparently is the first year freshman and transfers have been elligible, which is great for us. Duke had three players make the list in Parker, Hood, and Sulaimon. This is pretty amazing considering they are all underclassmen.

Other notables are McAdoo from UNC, the three freshman from Kansas (Wiggins, Selden and Embiid), and four Kentucky players (Randle, Young, An. Harrison, and Cauley-Stein).

The complete list can be found here:

http://www.woodenaward.com/?p=1460

Congrats to our guys!

Where's P.J.?

[BD80]

The Wooden award watch list was released earlier today.

This apparently is the first year freshman and transfers have been elligible, which is great for us. Duke had three players make the list in Parker, Hood, and Sulaimon. This is pretty amazing considering they are all underclassmen.

Other notables are McAdoo from UNC, the three freshman from Kansas (Wiggins, Selden and Embiid), and four Kentucky players (Randle, Young, An. Harrison, and Cauley-Stein).

The complete list can be found here:

http://www.woodenaward.com/?p=1460

Congrats to our guys!

Call me crazy (you may have to wait in line) - but I think Cook will work his way onto the list, and will get All-ACC and some AA consideration.

[MCFinARL]

Call me crazy (you may have to wait in line) - but I think Cook will work his way onto the list, and will get All-ACC and some AA consideration.

Regardless of whether or not you are crazy (as to which I remain agnostic), I can definitely see this happening--not ready to say "will," as you do, but definitely "could.

[superdave]

I agree on Quinn Cook. I could see him averaging 16 and 8 with solid D and turning plenty of heads.

My short list for the finalists starts with McDermott and Smart, then everyone else. McDermott had 37 points last night. Smart averaged 15, 5, 4 and 3 last season. The second tier of guys will like include Russ Smith, Mitch McGary, Jabari Parker, Julius Randle and Andrew Wiggins. The Duke, Kentucky and Kansas guys all suffer from being on deep, talented teams so their starts are unlikely to stand out. But I would bet that McDermott and Smart get most of the attention for awards.

[devildeac]

Where's P.J.?

Running steps/laps?

[jimsumner]

I agree on Quinn Cook. I could see him averaging 16 and 8 with solid D and turning plenty of heads.

.

Eight assists per game is ambitious.

Really ambitious.

Really, really ambitious. Hurley is the only Duke player to officially ever be in that neighborhood.

And K has said repeatedly that he wants to run this offense through Hood and Parker.

All things considered, six assists per game would be very impressive.

Unless you were talking eight rebounds per game.

[Henderson]

Congrats to all three of our guys, who all seem like legitimate contenders.

But 50 guys on a watch list for 1 award? You can look at the list and see that a lot of those guys have no chance. Zero. Sure, anyone could break out and average 50 per night. And my dog could become an astronaut.

This thing is sponsored by Wendy's, and having this big a list looks more like a nation-wide hamburger marketing ploy than a real list of contenders.

[Ichabod Drain]

Congrats to all three of our guys, who all seem like legitimate contenders.

But 50 guys on a watch list for 1 award? You can look at the list and see that a lot of those guys have no chance. Zero. Sure, anyone could break out and average 50 per night. And my dog could become an astronaut.

This thing is sponsored by Wendy's, and having this big a list looks more like a nation-wide hamburger marketing ploy than a real list of contenders.

Last years winner: Victor Oladipo. Wasn't even on the preseason watch list.

[theschwartz]

Congrats to all three of our guys, who all seem like legitimate contenders.

But 50 guys on a watch list for 1 award? You can look at the list and see that a lot of those guys have no chance. Zero. Sure, anyone could break out and average 50 per night. And my dog could become an astronaut.

This thing is sponsored by Wendy's, and having this big a list looks more like a nation-wide hamburger marketing ploy than a real list of contenders.

I agree. You could probably have a preseason list of 10 guys from which I'd be 95% confident the end-of-season winner emerges. That list: McDermott, Smart, Randle, Wiggins, Parker, R Smith, Gordon, G Harris, Haws, and our Rodney. But I don't mind having a huge list of 50 - that's how you drum up national interest. You get the Stanford fan base fired up that Dwight Powell is a contender, or the Tennessee fan base reason to be excited over Jarnell Stokes. Early in the season, every team and fan base should feel like their team/player has a shot. When it's all said & done, I don't see McGary being a contender, not with his back issues and no Trey Burke feeding him the rock.

Also, pretty sure Trey Burke won all the big awards last year, including the Wooden. He was very much on all the preseason lists.

[jimsumner]

Congrats to all three of our guys, who all seem like legitimate contenders.

But 50 guys on a watch list for 1 award? You can look at the list and see that a lot of those guys have no chance. Zero. Sure, anyone could break out and average 50 per night. And my dog could become an astronaut.

This thing is sponsored by Wendy's, and having this big a list looks more like a nation-wide hamburger marketing ploy than a real list of contenders.

The lists do get pared down as the season progresses.

The Cousy Award preseason watch list has something like 45 names and that's just for point guards.

[NSDukeFan]

Where's P.J.?

Not sure where he is now, but pretty sure he'll be back for Kentucky.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2gi1tGJK-E

[superdave]

I agree on Quinn Cook. I could see him averaging 16 and 8 with solid D and turning plenty of heads.

My short list for the finalists starts with McDermott and Smart, then everyone else. McDermott had 37 points last night. Smart averaged 15, 5, 4 and 3 last season. The second tier of guys will like include Russ Smith, Mitch McGary, Jabari Parker, Julius Randle and Andrew Wiggins. The Duke, Kentucky and Kansas guys all suffer from being on deep, talented teams so their starts are unlikely to stand out. But I would bet that McDermott and Smart get most of the attention for awards.

After last night, I would move Jabari Parker into the top tier with Smart and McDermott. Parker can get big stats on this Duke team all season in the flow of our team game, and make highlight reel plays too. He is a man among boys, a big matchup problem for everyone.

[CharlestonDevil]

After last night, I would move Jabari Parker into the top tier with Smart and McDermott. Parker can get big stats on this Duke team all season in the flow of our team game, and make highlight reel plays too. He is a man among boys, a big matchup problem for everyone.

Agreed. People can compare Parker/Wiggins/Randle till the cows come home, and while you see potential in all three of them (along with the others on the list) the completeness of Parker's game was astonishing. There is no phase of the game the kid doesn't impact.

On a side note, I noticed during the game last night how our guys were really playing around Parker and not with him. Very similar to what K called "JJ watching" during Redick's senior year.