2018 Wooden Legacy highlights

Wooden Chips

• For the first time in Wooden Legacy history, there were only two double-doubles in the entire tournament (previous low was three), and both occurred in the same game… Grand Canyon’s Alessandro Lever had 17 points and 10 rebounds, his third career double-double… La Salle’s Miles Brookins got his double-double with 10 points and a career high 10 rebounds.
• The two double-doubles in the same game by opposing players was a rarity, as it was just the fourth time that happened in the event’s history… In the 2008 championship game Wake Forest had three players with double-doubles while Baylor had one… Then in both 2009 and 2017 there were games which saw double-doubles by players on both sides.
• The 16 lead changes in the championship game was the most ever in a championship game, while the 12 ties tied for the most…. Both marks had been set in last year’s title match.
• The two-point margin made this the closest in Wooden Legacy championship history, edging the previous best of three points in 2014 (Washington 68, UTEP 65).
• Tonight’s championship game was the second-highest scoring championship game (in terms of combined points – 164) in Wooden Legacy history, trailing only the 179 from last year.
• Both teams shot over 50% FG, a first in Wooden Legacy championship history… In fact, prior to tonight just four teams had made at least half their shots in a championship game, and none had done so since 2012.
• This year’s tournament tied for the second highest scoring in Wooden Legacy history… The total average of combined points was 148.0, equaling that of 2008 but below the 2016 record (154.9)… The average margin of victory was 13.5 ppg, which tied the record of 13.5 in 2008.
• Seton Hall’s Myles Powell ended the tournament with a 25.3 ppg average, good for fourth best of all time… Even if he didn’t score a single point in the championship game, his 59 points from the first two games would have been enough to make him the most prolific scorer of the 2018 tournament as the next highest scorer finished with 58 points in the event.
• Nate Grimes of Fresno State averaged 10.3 rpg this week, which tied him for the sixth best average in Wooden Legacy history.
• Several players left their names among the free throw percentage leaders charts for this tournament… A.J. Turner of Northwestern went 9-9 this weekend, becoming the sixth player to not miss a free throw when attempting at least nine… His teammate Ryan Taylor went 10-11 (.909) while La Salle’s Pookie Powell ended 19-21 (.905), both of which earned spots among the all-time leaders.
• Grand Canyon scored 17 straight points against La Salle to change a 9-8 deficit into a 25-9 lead, the longest such streak in this year’s Wooden Legacy, surpassing the 14 in a row that GCU gave up against Utah.
• Miami ended the event with five players averaging double figure scoring, while Seton Hall joined Grand Canyon and La Salle by having just two players average 10 or more points.