Jan. 6, 2011
LOS ANGELES - Baylor men's basketball senior guard LaceDarius Dunn has been named to the John R. Wooden Award Midseason Top 30 list, The Los Angeles Athletic Club announced Thursday. Selected by the Wooden Award National Advisory Board, the list is made up of 30 student-athletes who, based on their performances in November and December, are the early frontrunners for college basketball's most prestigious honor.
Dunn is one of six Big 12 players among the 30 midseason honorees, joining Colorado's Alec Burks, Missouri's Marcus Denmon, Texas' Jordan Hamilton, Kansas' Marcus Morris and Kansas State's Jacob Pullen. The Big Ten and Big 12 conferences boast the largest number of players chosen to the list, with six each.
The Monroe, La., native leads the Big 12 in both scoring (23.4 points-per-game) and 3-point field goals (4.2 3FG-per-game). In Baylor's 89-72 win Jan. 4 over Morgan State, Dunn drained a school-record 10 3-pointers en route to a career-high 43 points. Dunn, who has made a 3-point field goal in 27 consecutive games, has made a Baylor-record 341 3-point field goals, which rank second in Big 12 history. He currently ranks second in school history with 1,973 career points and needs 217 points to surpass Terry Teagle (2,189) as Baylor's all-time leading scorer.
Transfers, freshmen and medical redshirts are eligible for this midseason list but did not appear on the preseason Top 50. All players nationally who excel throughout the season will be evaluated and considered for the official voting ballot released in March. The National Ballot consists of approximately 20 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. The Wooden Award All-American Team will be announced the week of the "Elite Eight" round during the NCAA Tournament, making it unique among college postseason awards.
Purdue (JaJuan Johnson, E'Twaun Moore) and No. 1-ranked Duke (Kyle Singler, Nolan Smith) were the only schools with two players on the Midseason List. In a change from the past several years, half of the players chosen are seniors. Only two freshmen made the list: Ohio State's Jared Sullinger and Terrence Jones of Kentucky.
The 35th annual Wooden Award ceremony, which will include the announcement of the Men's and Women's Wooden Award winners, a special tribute to Coach Wooden and Wooden Award founder Duke Llewellyn, and the presentation of the Wooden Award All American Teams and the Legends of Coaching Award, will take place the weekend of April 8-10, 2011.
