Bogut named finalist for 29th Wooden Award

Andrew Bogut, the 7-foot University of Utah center who has declared for the NBA Draft, was named Tuesday as one of the five finalists for the John R. Wooden Award. Bogut will be invited to Los Angeles for the 29th Annual Wooden Award Ceremony.

"I think it's probably the highest honor in basketball," said Utah coach Ray Giacoletti. "It's like the Heisman Trophy. We're very excited for Andrew. It's very well-deserved."

The other finalists are Dee Brown of Illinois, Sean May of North Carolina, J.J. Redick of Duke and Wayne Simien of Kansas.

The trophy presentation for this season's college basketball player of the year will air April 9, live on CBS from the Los Angeles Athletic Club at 11 a.m. A panel of more than 1,000 voters comprised of sports media members and college basketball experts cast their votes for the 10-member all-American team and Wooden Award recipient.

The top 10 Wooden Award All-Americans, in alphabetical order, are Bogut, Brown, Francisco Garcia, May, Chris Paul, Redick, Simien, Salim Stoudamire, Hakim Warrick and Deron Williams. The 2005 All-American team consists of three seniors, five juniors and two sophomores. Seven conferences are represented on the All-American squad with the ACC leading the way with three players, followed by the Big Ten with two nominees, and the Big 12, Big East, Mountain West, Pac-10 and Conference USA each accounting for one nominated player.

"All of these finalists deserve to be recognized for their extraordinary level of play throughout the season," said Richard "Duke" Llewellyn, founder and chairman of the Wooden Award. "We look forward to crowning one of these five players the 2005 Wooden Award winner."

The Wooden Award Scholarship Fund was established in 2002 by Applied Materials and corporate partners through the California Community Foundation to honor UCLA coach John R. Wooden's dedication as an educator and mentor.

Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award is is bestowed upon the nation's best player at an institution of higher education who has proven to his/her university that he/she is making progress toward graduation and maintaining a cumulative 2.0 GPA. Previous winners include such notables as Michael Jordan ('84), Larry Bird ('79), Tim Duncan ('97), and last year's recipient, Jameer Nelson ('04).