Thursday Quickies: Wooden Award Watchlist Edition

A pair of Wildcats make the list

By Zac Oakes@ZacOakes Jan 9, 2020, 6:40am EST

Ashton Hagans and Tyrese Maxey have been two of the most important players for Kentucky this season, and their performance this season is being recognized as they remain in the hunt for the John R. Wooden Award.

The 25 midseason finalists were announced Wednesday night. Kentucky joins Duke and Kansas as the only schools to have two players make the list.

Anthony Davis is the only player in Kentucky history to win the award.

Hagans is averaging 12.9 points, 7.1 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game.

Maxey leads the Wildcats in scoring at 14 points per game and has shown up in a big way in important games. Against UK’s three ranked foes, he averaged 22.7 points and 6.0 rebounds while shooting 53.8% from the field, 44.4% from 3-point range and 81.8% from the free-throw line.

Nearly 1,000 voters will rank in order 10 of those 15 players that make the national ballot, who have qualified as meeting the standards set forth by Coach Wooden and the Wooden Award Steering Committee. Voting will open prior to the start of the NCAA Tournament and will allow voters to take into consideration performance during early round games. The Wooden Award All American Team will be announced the week of the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. The winner of the 2020 John R. Wooden Award will be presented during the ESPN College Basketball Awards presented by Wendy’s on April 10.

Go Hagans. Go Maxey. Go Cats.

Tweet of the Day

Immanuel Quickley is fourth nationally in FT% (94.1).

Nick Richards is seventh nationally in FG% (69.2).

Ashton Hagans is eighth nationally in assists per game (7.1).

And Tyrese Maxey might be the best big-game freshman in the country.

Kentucky still has good players.
— Kyle Tucker (@KyleTucker_ATH) January 8, 2020