Flagg, Broome heading Wood Award’s top 20

Jeff BorzelloFeb 11, 2025, 03:59 PM ET

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• Basketball recruiting expert.
• Joined ESPN in 2014.
• Graduate of University of Delaware.Duke’s Cooper Flagg and Auburn’s Johni Broome headlined the males’s Wooden Award late midseason top-20 list announced Tuesday night.The award is given yearly to the best college basketball player in the country.Flagg and Broome have actually been the viewed favorites for the Wooden Award for the majority of the past 3 months. Broome began the season with a dominant nonconference performance before Flagg comprised ground with an excellent open to ACC play as an injury kept Broome out for two games.Flagg, the Duke freshman and frustrating preferred to be the No. 1 choice in June’s NBA draft, is balancing 19.5 points, 7.7 rebounds and 4.0 assists. He has been even much better in conference play, installing 21.9 points on 53.1 %shooting from the field and 46 %shooting from 3-point range. The 6-foot-9 Flagg set an ACC freshman record with 42 points versus Notre Dame in January, and has led Duke to the top of the ACC standings with a clear path to a 1-seed in the NCAA tournament.Broome, a third-team All-American and first-team All-SEC entertainer last season, appeared like the clear front-runner for the award through the first two months of 2024-25. He then suffered an ankle sprain in mid-January versus South Carolina, however had the ability to return after simply 2 games on the sideline, and has actually been just as dominant as he was before the injury. Broome is averaging 18.1 points, 10.9 rebounds and 3.3 helps– all profession highs– and has Auburn ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated Although Flagg and Broome are the leaders going into the last month of the routine season, there are other feasible candidates looking to close the gap.
  

  Purdue’s Braden Smith has taken pleasure in

  a breakout campaign after two-time Wooden Award winner Zach Edey’s departure last spring, averaging 16.1 points, 4.6 rebounds, 8.8 assists and 2.6 steals while leading the Boilermakers in their quest for a third straight Huge Ten regular-season title and 1-seed in the NCAA competition. Marquette’s Kam Jones had an incredible start to the season, and though he decreased in January, the 6-5 senior is still installing 19.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 6.0 assists.Two groups have multiple players on the list: Rutgers, with Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, and Iowa State, represented by Keshon Gilbert and Curtis Jones.Jones and West Virginia guard Javon Small are the two players on the late midseason top 20 who weren’t

  on the midseason top-25 list.The guys’s Wooden Award has been offered every year since 1977, starting with UCLA star Marques Johnson.The complete Wooden Award late midseason leading

  20: Ace Bailey, Rutgers Johni Broome, Auburn Walter Clayton Jr., Florida Hunter Dickinson, Kansas Eric Dixon, Villanova Cooper Flagg, Duke Keshon Gilbert,

  Iowa State PJ Haggerty, Memphis Dylan Harper, Rutgers Kasparas Jakucionis, Illinois Curtis Jones, Iowa State Kam Jones

  , Marquette Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton Alex Karaban

  , UConn Chaz Lanier, Tennessee Ryan Nembhard, Gonzaga

  Maxime Raynaud, Stanford Mark Sears, Alabama Javon Small, West

  Virginia Braden Smith, Purdue