Frank Kaminsky received the John R. Wooden Award on Friday as men’s college basketball’s top player while Breanna Stewart of national champion Connecticut was the women’s winner.
Kaminsky, a 7-foot senior forward on a Wisconsin team that did not list a center on its roster, averaged a team-high 18.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, helping the Badgers reach the national championship game for the first time since 1941.
Kaminsky received 3,385 points in voting by nearly 1,000 national college basketball media members and previous Wooden Award winners.
Freshman center Jahlil Okafor, the leading scorer and rebounder for national champion Duke, was second with 3,060 points, followed by Kentucky junior forward Willie Cauley-Stein (2,361), Notre Dame senior guard Jerian Grant (1,870) and Ohio State freshman guard D’Angelo Russell (1,583).
Voting ended March 23, a day after the completion of the NCAA tournament’s round of 32 games.
Stewart, a 6-foot-4 junior forward, averaged a team-high 17.6 points and 7.8 rebounds for the Huskies, and received 469 voting points.
Notre Dame junior forward Jewell Loyd was second with 440 points, followed by South Carolina junior guard Tiffany Mitchell (296), Baylor sophomore forward Nina Davis (239) and Connecticut senior forward Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (234).
Voting ended March 25, two days after the completion of the NCAA tournament’s round of 32 games.
As insisted upon by the late legendary UCLA coach John Wooden at the award’s creation in 1976, all players under consideration for the award must have proven to their universities that they are making progress toward graduation and are maintaining at least a cumulative 2.0 grade point average.
The ceremony was held at Club Nokia.
