Wooden Award Leading 20 list functions Purdue’s Edey

• Jeff Borzello, ESPN Staff WriterJan 30, 2024, 06:30 PM ET

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  • Basketball recruiting insider.
  • Joined ESPN in 2014.
  • Graduate of University of Delaware.Reigning winner Zach Edey

, the dominant 7-foot-4 Purdue star, headlined the guys’s Wooden Award Late Season Top 20 list announced Tuesday night.The award is offered every year to the best college basketball player in the country.Edey was the runaway Wood Award winner on the males’s side last season and entered this season as the heavy favorite to become the very first repeat winner given that Virginia’s Ralph Sampson won the 1982 and 1983 awards. He’s just sealed his status as the front-runner considering that the season started, leading the No. 2-ranked Boilermakers by averaging 23.0 points, 11.4 rebounds and 2.3 blocks, while shooting 62.7%from the field.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated Going into the last month of the regular season, Edey is most likely to

deal with a much deeper swimming pool of genuine contenders than a year earlier. Tennessee wing Dalton Knecht has been the very best transfer in the nation, and he’s averaging 19.5 points this season– however 32.0 points over his previous 4 games, with the Volunteers ranked inside the top five nationally. North Carolina’s RJ Davis has actually been arguably the best guard in America, producing a real breakout season and balancing 21.2 points and 3.3 helps as the Tar Heels look like the ACC preferred and a Last 4 threat.UConn guard Tristen Newton(15.8 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 5.8 APG)has actually been the very best player on the country’s finest group, while Kentucky’s Antonio Reeves is putting up 19.5 points on 50.2 %shooting (43.1 3PT %)for the top-10 Wildcats. The Kansas duo of Hunter Dickinson (18.9 PPG, 11.3 RPG)and Kevin McCullar Jr. (19.8 PPG, 4.7 RPG )are likewise taking pleasure in All-America-caliber projects and might figure into the conversation if the Jayhawks make a late-season surge.There are 2 players on the Late Season Top 20 who weren’t on the Midseason Top 25: Auburn’s Johni Broome and Dayton’s DaRon Holmes II.The guys’s Wooden Award has been offered every year because 1977, starting with UCLA star Marques Johnson.The complete Wooden Award Late Season Leading 20: Armando Bacot, North Carolina Johni Broome, Auburn L.J. Cryer, Houston Johnell Davis, Florida Atlantic RJ Davis, North Carolina Hunter Dickinson, Kansas Zach Edey, Purdue Kyle Filipowski, Duke

PJ Hall, Clemson DaRon Holmes II, Dayton David Jones

, Memphis Dalton Knecht, Tennessee Tyler Kolek, Marquette Jaedon LeDee, San Diego State Caleb Love, Arizona Kevin McCullar Jr., Kansas

Tristen Newton, UConn Antonio Reeves, Kentucky

Baylor Scheierman

, Creighton KJ Simpson, Colorado