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Wooden Award
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Mike Krzyzewski is considered the GOAT of college basketball coaching.
And for good reason.
The legendary coach won 1,202 games during his 47 seasons at Duke and Army, raising 5 championship banners to the rafters at Cameron Indoor Stadium along the way. But both the titles and his .785 winning percentage pale by comparison to the accomplishments of John R. Wooden.
Wooden coached only 29 seasons — the first 2 at Indiana State and then 27 at UCLA from 1948-75 — so his win total of 664 seems modest by contrast. He won 620 games at UCLA (.808 winning percentage), including 10 national titles in a 12-year stretch.
Seven of them in a row.
Known as the Wizard of Westwood, Wooden was the first person to be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a player (Purdue) and a coach. So it’s only appropriate that the most prestigious award honoring the national college basketball Player of the Year each season is named in his honor.
What Is The Wooden Award?
Presented annually by the Los Angeles Athletic Club since 1977, 2 years after Wooden retired on top with his 10th national crown, the Wooden Award honors “the outstanding player in college basketball, based on performance over the course of the entire season.”
The first winner, appropriately, was a player Wooden recruited to UCLA – forward Marques Johnson.
According to the award’s official website, a player must be “a full-time student making progress toward graduation and have a cumulative 2.0-grade point average since enrolling in school” to be considered. In addition, candidates must “exhibit stretch of character both on and off the court, contribute to their team’s effort, excel on both offense and defense.”
While the award was originally presented only to male players, a women’s award was added in 2004.
How Is The Wooden Award Winner Selected?
A list of 15 candidates for Player of the Year and All-American honors is compiled by a “blue ribbon national advisory board” selected by the Los Angeles Athletic Club. Those candidates are then listed on a ballot that is sent to a panel of nearly 1,000 voters representing each of the 50 states.
The 5 players who receive the most votes are named the Wooden Award’s All-American first-team and invited to Los Angeles for the award presentation ceremony shortly after the NCAA Tournament championship game.
What Does The Wooden Award Trophy Look Like?
The trophy features five bronze figures, each depicting one of the 5 major skills Wooden believed a player needed to master to become a “total basketball player” – rebounding, passing, shooting, dribbling and defending.
The concept was the idea of Wooden Award chairman Richard “Duke” Llewellyn, who designed the trophy by having former players pose for photographs demonstrating each of the skills. The pictures were then given to sculptor Don Winton to produce a model that was then cast into the finished product by Robert Graves, the same mold-maker who made the trophies for the Emmy and Grammy Awards.
The 5 bronze-plated figures are attached to a pentagonal base made from solid walnut. The total height of the trophy is 17 3/4 inches and weighs 25 pounds.
Who Has Won The Wooden Award?
Rivals Duke and North Carolina have produced the most Wooden Award winners in the 48 years it has been awarded. The Blue Devils have had 5 winners (Christian Laettner in 1992, Elton Brand in 1999, Shane Battier in 2001, JJ Redick in 2006 and Zion Williamson in 2019) while the Tar Heels have had 4 (Phil Ford in 1978, Michael Jordan in 1984, Antawn Jamison in 1998 and Tyler Hansbrough in 2008).
Other schools with multiple winners include Purdue 3 and UCLA, Virginia, St. John’s, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Kentucky with 2 each.
Two players have won multiple Wooden Awards. Virginia’s Ralph Sampson earned his in 1982-83 while Purdue center Zach Edey was the recipient in 2023 and ‘24.
The most recent winner is Duke phenom Cooper Flagg, who joined fellow Blue Devil Zion Williamson in 2019, Kentucky’s Anthony Davis in 2012 and Texas’ Kevin Durant in 2007 as the only freshmen to take home the Wooden Award.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
