2016 John R. Wooden Award and Basketball Hall of Fame Awards Recipients Named at College Basketball Awards Presented by Wendy’s


Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield, Kentucky’s Tyler Ulis, Michigan State’s Denzel Valentine, UConn’s Breanna Stewart and more claimed hardware during ESPN2’s Friday night telecast

The stars of college basketball descended on Los Angeles tonight for one last celebration before putting the 2015-16 season to rest. The College Basketball Awards Presented by Wendy’s televised live on ESPN2 from The NOVO by Microsoft at L.A. Live saw college basketball’s top players, coaches and Hall of Famers gather to honor the winners of eight prestigious end-of-season awards.

Hosted by ESPN’s Rece Davis, Jay Bilas, Seth Greenberg and Jay Williams, the one-hour program also included nods to the season’s best moments, and features on Minnesota’s Rachel Banham and her social media interactions with Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant as well as the dancing skills of South Carolina’s A’ja Wilson, Michigan State’s Denzel Valentine and head coach Tom Izzo, who stopped by ABC’s Dancing with the Stars set.

The College Basketball Awards Presented by Wendy’s – in coordination with the Los Angeles Athletic Club and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame – included the exclusive presentation of the John R. Wooden Award Men’s Player of the Year Presented by Wendy’s, John R. Wooden Award Women’s Player of the Year as well as the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award presented by College of the Holy Cross and four positional honors created and managed by the Basketball Hall of Fame: Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award, Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award presented by University of Massachusetts, Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award presented by cConnects and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award. The show also highlighted the previously announced 2016 Wooden Legends of Coaching Award to Texas Tech head coach Tubby Smith. He is one of two coaches (Lon Kruger) to lead five different schools to the NCAA Tournament.

College Basketball Awards Presented by Wendy’s Winners

Award Nominees (winner in bold)
John R. Wooden Award Men’s Player of the Year presented by Wendy’s Malcolm Brogdon (Virginia)
Buddy Hield (Oklahoma)
Brice Johnson (North Carolina)
Tyler Ulis (Kentucky)
Denzel Valentine (Michigan State)
John R. Wooden Award Women’s Player of the Year Rachel Banham (Minnesota)
Moriah Jefferson (UConn)
Kelsey Mitchell (Ohio State)
Breanna Stewart (UConn)
A’ja Wilson (South Carolina)
John R. Wooden Award Legends of Coaching Tubby Smith (Texas Tech)
 
Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award presented by

College of the Holy Cross

Kris Dunn (Providence)
Kay Felder (Oakland)
Yogi Ferrell (Indiana)
Monte Morris (Iowa State)
Tyler Ulis (Kentucky)
Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award Grayson Allen (Duke)
Malcolm Brogdon (Virginia)
A.J. English (Iona)
Josh Hart (Villanova)
Buddy Hield (Oklahoma)
Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award presented by University of Massachusetts DeAndre’ Bembry (Saint Joseph’s)
Brandon Ingram (Duke)
Wayne Selden, Jr. (Kansas)
Ben Simmons (Louisiana State)
Denzel Valentine (Michigan State)
Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award presented by cConnects Perry Ellis (Kansas)
Brice Johnson (North Carolina)
Georges Niang (Iowa State)
Jarrod Uthoff (Iowa)
Jameel Warney (Stony Brook)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award Ben Bentil (Providence)
Joel Bolomboy (Weber State)
A.J. Hammons (Purdue)
Jakob Poeltl (Utah)
Domantas Sabonis (Gonzaga)

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Contact: Keri Potts, ESPN Communications, [email protected]