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.

• Oklahoma’s sharp-shooting Buddy Hield earned both the John R. Wooden Men’s Player of the Year Award and the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award. He led Division I in most 3-point field goals made (147) this year and was second in the nation in scoring (25.0 points per game).
• Breanna Stewart, a senior with UConn’s who amassed an unprecedented four consecutive national titles and four Final Four Most Outstanding Player designations, claimed the John R. Wooden Women’s Player of the Year Award for the second straight year.
• Kentucky’s sophomore sensation Tyler Ulis was named the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year in a season where he set a school record for assists average (7.0) in a single season.
• Valentine received the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award. He had a season-leading 20 games with at least 15 points, five rebounds and five assists and led the Big Ten in double-double performances (12).
• Iowa State’s Georges Niang took home the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award for a season that saw him average 20.5 points and 6.2 rebounds per game.
• Pac-12 Player of the Year, Jakob Poeltl of Utah, claimed the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award.

College Basketball Awards Presented by Wendy’s Winners

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