by MADISON, Wis. – Bronson Koenig (Ho-Chunk Nation) of the Wisconsin men’s basketball team has been named to the Preseason Top 50 for the Wooden Award Watch List, as announced by the Los Angeles Athletic Club on ESPN’s SportsCenter and on ESPN.com on Tuesday.
Early front-runner for college basketball’s most prestigious individual honor, Bronson Koenig and teammate Nigel Hayes represent the NCAA runner-up Badgers and highlight a list of stars from the 2015 NCAA Tournament.
The preseason All-Big Ten duo are two of the best at their respective positions, as Hayes and Koenig were each named to watch lists for the Julius Erving Award and Bob Cousy Award, respectively. Each watch list contains the top 20 players at its position, as the Julius Erving Award recognizes the top small forward in the nation and the Bob Cousy Award recognizes the top point guard in the country.
Wisconsin is one of only four schools to have two players in the Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 the past two seasons, along with Duke, Kentucky and Wichita State.
Koenig, a junior, started the final 24 games a season ago and averaged 11.5 points and 2.7 assists per game, while shooting 50-for-113 (.442) from 3-point range over that stretch. Koenig currently leads the Badgers this season at 20.0 points per game while shooting 51.7 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from 3-point range.
Several universities boast multiple players on this season’s list. Indiana (James Blackmon, Jr., Yogi Ferrell and Troy Williams) and Kentucky (Skal Labissiere, Jamal Murray and Tyler Ulis) lead the honors with three candidates apiece, while Baylor, California, Duke, Gonzaga, Iowa State, Maryland, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Virginia, Wichita State and Wisconsin each have two players each on the Preseason Top 50.
The Top 50 nominees represent 10 conferences. The Big Ten leads all conferences with 10 selections, followed by the ACC (9), and the Big 12 (7), SEC (7), Pac-12 (5), Big East (4) and WCC (3). The American and Missouri Valley Conference each have two players selected and the Atlantic 10 has one player selected.
The players on the list are considered strong candidates for the 2016 John R. Wooden Award presented by Wendy’s. The Wooden Award National Advisory Board will select 25 players to the Midseason Top 25 in early January. In early February, the John R. Wooden Award will announce one final leading candidate list—the Late Season Top 20—prior to the selection of 15 players to the National Ballot. Nearly 1000 voters will rank order 10 of those 15 players, who have been qualified as meeting the standards set forth by Coach Wooden. Voting will open prior to the start of the NCAA Tournament and will allow voters to take into consideration performance during the 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 John R. Wooden Award will be announced during the ESPN College Basketball Awards Show presented by Wendy’s on Friday, April 8, 2016.
