John Wall mentioned as contender for Wooden Award, and UK's "big games" are among the country's best
By Staff
John Wall is already being mentioned as a finalist for one of college basketball’s top awards even before he plays in his first game at UK. We will take a look at that news in just a second, but first, Kentucky is involved in a few “must see TV games” this season.
A few weeks ago, Pat Forde listed the UK/UL game as the top rivalry game in college basketball for the upcoming season. UK/UT also was in the top 5. Now, Jeff Goodman from Foxsports.com is taking a look at the top out of conference matchups for the upcoming hoops season and UK scores huge in that list, landing three of the top five matchups.
Coming in at number one on the list was the UConn/UK matchup on December 9 and Goodman stated that this game would feature “two big time programs with a pair of coaches that are not exactly buddies”. The tensions can be even higher in December as it looks like UConn may be positioning themselves as the team to beat for Josh Selby . This news is a shock for UK fans as many had him UK bound within minutes of de – committing from UK.
North Carolina at UK ranks as Goodman’s second best OOC matchup of the year and there really is not a lot more to be said about this game. UL at UK is Goodman’s fifth top matchup of the season and really there is no explanation required for this game either.
While UK having three of the top five matchups was impressive, UNC actually took top billing with three of the top four matchups. The December 1 rematch of the NCAA tourney final between UNC and Michigan State was third and the UNC/Texas pairing ranked fourth. The UK/IU matchup also ranked near the bottom part of Goodman’s top out of conference matchups.
Look for UK to continually be listed highly on this list as Calipari has a “take on on all comers” mentality and he has expressed a desire to add future games against Texas, against Duke in Atlanta, vs Kansas in St. Louis and his old team, Memphis. It’s certainly a dream list of future games but I really like Calipari’s mentality on having a very tough schedule.
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Andy Katz from ESPN has said that the race for the Wooden Award, which goes to the national player of the year, is as open as it has ever been. Kevin Durant won the award as a freshman and Katz thinks that John Wall’s name has to be mentioned when discussing possible contenders for the trophy.
According to Katz, UK actually has two players with a shot at taking home the award. Katz compiled a “top 15” list of players who will be in the mix for the Wooden and Patrick Patterson was 8th on his list and John Wall was 14th.
It’s good to see Patterson getting his recognition on the preseason lists as it just validates his decision to come back to UK instead of bolt for the NBA.
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