Timing may dictate who wins Wooden

LOS ANGELES — They say timing is everything, which may be a big factor in whether Andrew Bogut takes home college basketball's biggest prize, the John R Wooden Award, today.

The revelation of the 2005 winner comes at 11 a.m. MST on CBS-TV. Bogut and four other candidates, North Carolina's Sean May, Duke's J.J.Redick, Illinois' Dee Brown and Wayne Simien of Kansas will be on hand at the Los Angeles Athletic Club for the live announcement.

Bogut would seem to be the heavy favorite based on the fact that he has already received nearly every other college player of the year award thus far, including Naismith, Associated Press, Basketball Writers and NABC (coaches) honors. Duke's Reddick took home the Adolph Rupp Trophy, but otherwise it's been all Bogut.

The one thing that could hurt Bogut's chances for the Wooden Award is the fact that the voting was open until just 11 days ago, after some other awards had already been given out, helping players who played longer than Bogut. Approximately 1,000 voters from around the country participate in the Wooden balloting.

The Naismith Trophy, considered the other major player of the year award, is selected by a panel of voters and this year for the first time, allowed fans to participate in the voting, accounting for 25 percent of the vote.

Most years, the Naismith and Wooden have selected the same players, with only seven differences since 1977, when the Wooden Award originated. However, since 1990, the two have differed just once, in 1995 when UCLA's Ed O'Bannon won the Wooden after Maryland's Joe Smith won the Naismith. O'Bannon may have been helped that year by the Bruins' late run to the Final Four, which culminated with an NCAA title, while Smith's team lost in the second round.

Another case when timing might have helped a player win the Wooden was 1981. BYU's Danny Ainge won the award over Virginia's Ralph Sampson, perhaps because of Ainge leading his team to the Elite Eight with his famous last-second drive against Notre Dame.

The question is whether voters judged Bogut on his final performance against Kentucky, his worst shooting game of his career when he went 8-for-19 from the field and 4-for-11 from the foul line, or on his whole season. The voting deadline was just three days after that game, while most other awards were determined before that. If that is held against Bogut, then the door could be open for someone like May, who came on strong late in the year and led his team tothe Final Four and eventually the national championship. Remember though,the ballots were due just before the Final Four games, so May won't get the advantage of his MVP performance there.

If Bogut does win, he'll be the first University of Utah player to win a major player of the year honor. Keith Van Horn and Andre Miller both finished second in Wooden Award balloting in 1997 and 1999, respectively.

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