The watch list for the John R. Wooden Award was reduced from 25 to 20 names on Monday, with six of the 20 remaining players hailing from the Big Ten.
Purdue guard Jaden Ivey and center Zach Edey, Illinois center Kofi Cockburn, Iowa forward Keegan Murray, Ohio State forward E.J. Liddell and Wisconsin guard Johnny Davis are all a part of the revised list for the award given to the top player in men’s college basketball.
Purdue (No. 4), Wisconsin (No. 11), Ohio State (No. 16) and Illinois (No. 18) are all ranked in the latest AP Top 25, announced Monday.
Ivey and Edey are one of two pairs of teammates on the revised list, joining Gonzaga frontcourt standouts Chet Holmgren and Drew Timme.
Of the 20 players on the revised list, nine appear in the first round of ESPN’s latest 2022 NBA mock draft, including Holmgren (No. 1), Duke’s Paolo Banchero (No. 2) and Auburn’s Jabari Smith (No. 3).
The five players trimmed from the previous version of the Watch List announced in early January are Iowa State’s Izaiah Brockington, Michigan’s Hunter Dickinson, UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez Jr., Duke’s Wendell Moore Jr. and Purdue’s Trevion Williams.
A complete look at the Wooden Award Midseason Top 25:
Max Abmas, Oral Roberts (6-0, Jr., G)
Ochai Agbaji, Kansas (6-5, Sr., G)
James Akinjo, Baylor (6-1, Sr., G)
Paolo Banchero, Duke (6-10, Fr., F)
Kofi Cockburn, Illinois (7-0, Jr., C)
Johnny Davis, Wisconsin (6-5, Soph., G)
Zach Edey, Purdue (7-4, Soph., C)
Collin Gillespie, Villanova (6-3, Sr., G)
Chet Holmgren, Gonzaga (7-0, Fr., C)
Jaden Ivey, Purdue (6-4 Soph., G)
Trayce Jackson-Davis, Indiana (6-9, Jr., F)
Johnny Juzang, UCLA (6-7, Jr., G)
E.J. Liddell, Ohio State (6-7, Jr., F)
Bennedict Mathurin, Arizona (6-6, Soph., G)
Isaiah Mobley, USC (6-10, Jr., F)
Keegan Murray, Iowa (6-8, Soph., F)
David Roddy, Colorado State (6-6, Jr., F)
Jabari Smith, Auburn (6-10, Fr., F)
Drew Timme, Gonzaga (6-10, Jr., F)
Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky (6-9, Jr., F)