My 50 preseason John R. Wooden award nominees

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I’ve been a member of the John R. Wooden Award advisory committee for quite a while and one of the annual duties in the role is contributing 50 nominees for the list of the award’s preseason candidates that will be released to the public in a few weeks.

Transfers (including those athletes who red-shirted at their current school a year ago) and freshmen aren’t eligible for this initial list but, you can assume that those two categories will impact the mid-season list.

Not surprisingly, a large number — 36 — of my selections come from the six “BCS” conferences, with the Big Ten’s 10 leading the way followed by the SEC and Big East with seven each.

North Carolina and Ohio State (four apiece) are the most well-represented programs on my list.

Here we go:

1. Tim Abromaitis           6-8                   Sr.        Notre Dame
2. Harrison Barnes          6-6                   So.       UNC
3. Will Barton                 6-6                   So.       Memphis
4. William Buford           6-5                   Sr.        Ohio State
5. Allen Crabbe               6-6                   So.       Cal
6. Aaron Craft                 6-1                   So.       Ohio State
7. Marcus Denmon          6-3                   Sr.        Missouri
8. Festus Ezelli                6-10                 Sr.        Vanderbilt
9. Ashton Gibbs              6-2                   Sr.        Pittsburgh
10. Michael Glover           6-7                   Sr.        Iona
11. Drew Gordon              6-9                   Sr.        New Mexico
12. Draymon Green          6-7                   Sr.        Michigan State
13. JaMychal Green          6-8                   Sr.        Alabama
14. Jorge Gutierrez            6-2                   Sr.        Cal
15. Reggie Hamilton         6-2                   Sr.        Oakland
16. Tim Hardaway Jr.       6-5                   So.       Michigan
17. John Henson               6-10                 Jr.        UNC
18. Tu Holloway               6-0                   Sr.        Xavier
19. Ken Horton                 6-6                   Sr.        Central Connecticut
20. Robbie Hummel          6-8                   Sr.        Purdue
21. Scoop Jardine              6-2                   Sr.        Syracuse
22. John Jenkins                6-3                   Jr.        Vanderbilt
23. Orlando Johnson         6-5                   Sr.        UC Santa Barbara
24. Kevin Jones                 6-8                   Sr.        West Virginia
25. Perry Jones                  6-10                 So.       Baylor
26. Terrence Jones          6-8                   So.       Kentucky
27. Kris Joseph                  6-7                   Sr.        Syracuse
28. Doron Lamb                6-4                   So.       Kentucky
29. Jeremy Lamb               6-6                   So.       Connecticut
30. Kendall Marshall         6-3                   So.       UNC
31. Ray McCallum            6-1                   So.       Detroit
32. Doug McDermott       6-7                   So.       Creighton
33. Trevor Mbakwe           6-8                   Sr.        Minnesota
34. Khris Middleton         6-7                   Jr.        Texas A&M
35. Dominique Morrison   6-6                   Sr.        Oral Roberts
36. Reeves Nelson           6-8                   Jr.        UCLA
37. Alex Oriakhi               6-9                   Jr.        Connecticut
38. Thomas Robinson       6-8                   Jr.        Kansas
39. Robert Sacre               7-0                   Sr.        Gonzaga
40. Mike Scott                  6-8                   Sr.        Virginia
41. John Shurna                6-8                   Sr.        Northwestern
42. Jared Sullinger            6-9                   So.       Ohio State
43. Jeffery Taylor              6-7                   Sr.        Vanderbilt
44. Jordan Taylor              6-1                   Sr.        Wisconsin
45. Deshaun Thomas         6-6                   So.       Ohio State
46. Erving Walker             5-7                   Sr.        Florida
47. Casper Ware                5-10                 Sr.        Long Beach State
48. Kyle Weems                6-6                   Sr.        Missouri State
49. Keith Wright               6-8                   Sr.        Harvard
50. Tyler Zeller                  7-0                   Sr.        UNC