Bogut likely to add Wooden Award to his accolades

It's the closest thing to the Heisman Trophy in college basketball.

That what Utah's Andrew Bogut will be hoping to add to his collection Saturday morning when the John R. Wooden Award is presented at the Los Angeles Athletic Club in downtown L.A.

Bogut is one of five finalists for the prestigious award along with North Carolina's Sean May, Illinois' Dee Brown, Duke's J.J. Redick and Kansas' Wayne Simien. So far, Bogut has won nearly every one of the numerous college player of the year awards given out each year.

Most recently, Bogut was given the Naismith Trophy, named the National Association of Basketball Coaches Division I Men's Player of the Year and the Pete Newell Big Man of the Year.

Earlier, he was selected as the player of the year by The Associated Press, Chevrolet/CBS and the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, Basketball Times and ESPN.com.

Although it doesn't have the tradition of the Heisman Trophy, only dating back to 1977, the Wooden Award is the most like the Heisman.

Like the Heisman, approximately 1,000 media and basketball experts from around the country participate in the voting. Like the Heisman, the top five candidates are invited for a live television broadcast (Saturday at 11 a.m. on CBS-TV). Like the Heisman, the winner receives a unique trophy, in this case five figures, each depicting one of the five major skills of the total basketball player.

The Wooden Award began in 1976 and was first awarded in 1977 with Marques Johnson of UCLA winning the honor. Other winners over the years have included Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Darrell Griffith and Danny Manning.

Two Utah players have finished second in Wooden Award balloting.

In 1997, Keith Van Horn was second behind Duncan, while Andre Miller was second to Elton Brand in 1999. The only local player to win the award was BYU's Danny Ainge in 1981.

Based on his bevy of awards already this year, Bogut is the favorite to take home more hardware.

The consensus player of the year has usually won the Wooden Award since its inception. Over the past 27 years, only seven times has the Naismith Trophy gone to a different player than the Wooden, only seven times has the AP award gone to a different player and only four times has the Basketball Writers Award gone to a different player.