Saunders has posted back-to-back double-doubles to begin the year (Gil Talbot).
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Wesley Saunders has been named to the Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 as one of the early front-runners for one of the nation's most prestigious awards, The Los Angeles Athletic Club announced today.
Saunders has been tremendous through two games for Harvard, posting back-to-back double-doubles to begin the year. He currently leads the team in scoring (19.5), rebounding (11.0) and steals (3.0), and is second in assists (4.5). Saunders, who has also been tabbed to the Lou Henson Preseason All-America Team, is coming off a season in which he was named the 2013-14 Ivy League Player of the year and was a Lou Henson All-America and AP All-America honorable mention selection.
Saunders joins Jeremy Lin '10 as the second member of the Crimson to be named to the Wooden Award Watch List. Lin was among the final 20 nominees for the award in 2009-10.
The players on the Top 50 list are considered strong candidates for the 2015 John R. Wooden Award Presented by Wendy's. The Wooden Award National Advisory Board will select 25 players for the midseason list in early January, with the leading candidates being cut down to 20 in early February. Fifteen top players who have proven to their universities that they are also making progress toward graduation and maintaining at least a cumulative 2.0 GPA will be placed on the ballot and submitted to voters prior to the NCAA tournament and voting will take into account play during the opening rounds of the tournament. The Wooden Award All-America team will be announced in advance of the "Elite Eight" round of the NCAA tournament.
The 39th annual Wooden Award ceremony will honor the Men's and Women's Wooden Award winners, and will include the presentation of the Wooden Award All-America teams and the Legends of Coaching Award, which in 2015 will go to San Diego State head men's basketball coach Steve Fisher. The event will take place the weekend of April 10-12, 2015.
Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award is the most prestigious individual honor in college basketball. It is bestowed upon the nation's best player at an institution of higher education who has proven to his or her university that he or she is making progress toward graduation and maintaining a minimum cumulative 2.0 GPA. Previous winners include such notables as Larry Bird ('79), Michael Jordan ('84), Tim Duncan ('97), Candace Parker ('07 and '08), Kevin Durant ('09) and Maya Moore ('09 and '11). Creighton's Doug McDermott won the 2014 Wooden Award Presented by Wendy's.
