lofton among preseason wooden candidates

The top 50 preseason candidates for the Men’s 2007-08 John R. Wooden Award, the nation’s most coveted college basketball award, were announced today by The Los Angeles Athletic Club’s Wooden Award Committee (see attached).  The Award is named for the three-time college basketball All American, 1932 Player of the Year and ten-time national championship coach at UCLA.

“The committee had a tough time deciding on just 50 candidates, with so many returning talented players across the country,” said Duke Llewellyn, Wooden Award chairman.  “Some teams even had several worthy candidates.  Our team at the John R. Wooden Award is excited to see the best players in the nation compete against each other all season, as they vie to be named college basketball’s player of the year.”

 Two returning Wooden All-Americans made the list, center Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina and Kansas guard Brandon Rush.  Five schools had two players on the list: UCLA (Darren Collison, Josh Shipp), North Carolina (Hansbrough, Ty Lawson), Kansas (Mario Chalmers, Rush), Washington State (Derrick Low, Kyle Weaver), Georgetown (Roy Hibbert, Johnathan Wallace).  More than 100 players received at least one vote.

 Hansbrough averages 18.6 points per game for his career and reached the 1,000-point plateau as a sophomore last year.  A 6-6 guard, Rush led the Jayhawks in scoring the last two seasons.  Georgetown’s pair of candidates played in last year’s Final Four, as did UCLA’s duo.

 The list is composed of 50 student athletes who, based on last year’s individual performance and team records, are the early frontrunners for college basketball’s most coveted trophy.  These top 50 candidates are comprised of returning players.  Transfers, freshmen, and medical redshirts are not eligible for this preseason list, but will be evaluated and considered for both the Midseason Top 30 list and the National Ballot.  Players not on the preseason list are eligible for the midseason top 30 and ballot.  Last year, Kevin Durant of the University of Texas was the first freshman to win the Wooden Award.

 A total of 16 NCAA conferences are represented.  The Pac-10 leads the way with 10 Wooden Award All American team candidates. Other conferences include the Big East (eight players), the ACC (seven players), the Big 12 (six players), the SEC (five players), the Big Ten (two players), the Sun Belt (two players), Western Athletic (two players), Conference USA (one player), Southern Conference (one player), the Sun Belt (one player), the Horizon League (one player), the Colonial Athletic Association (one player), the Big South (one player), West Coast (one player) and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (one player).

In January, the Wooden Award committee will release the Midseason Top 30 list, followed by the distribution of the National Ballot to more than 1,000 voters in early March. The 10-player Wooden Award All-American Team will be announced the Tuesday after the “Elite Eight” round of the NCAA Tournament is completed.

 The 2008 Award ceremony, which will include the presentation of the Men’s and Women’s John R. Wooden Award, the Wooden Award All-American Teams, and the Legends of Coaching Award to recipient Pat Summitt of the University of Tennessee, will be held at The Los Angeles Athletic Club the weekend of April 11-13, 2008.  The top five male and female finalists will be invited to Los Angeles for the Award’s ceremony and will receive a contribution from The Los Angeles Athletic Club for their university’s general scholarship fund.  One of these five players will be named the John R. Wooden Award Player of the Year at a live televised announcement from The Club where he is awarded the prestigious five-figured bronze trophy.

 Tennessee announces men’s season basketball tickets are sold out

The University of Tennessee Athletics Department announced this week that men’s basketball season tickets have sold out for the 2007-08 season, a first in Tennessee history.

 “I still can’t believe it,” head coach Bruce Pearl said. “We were already so excited to get this season started, now to know we could open the season to a sell out crowd is just amazing.”

Single-game tickets for matchups against Kentucky, Florida and Ohio State have also sold out. A very limited number of tickets remain for other conference and non-conference games.

 “Our basketball program continues to set records both on and off the court,” athletics director Mike Hamilton said. “With the sale of 16,000 season tickets already, the electricity in the building will be incredible.”

 The 16,000 season tickets sold easily breaks the previous record of 13,929 set in 1987, the first season Thompson-Boling Arena was open.

 The Vols will play exhibition games against California University of Pennsylvania Friday, Nov. 2, and Lincoln Memorial on Monday, Nov. 5, before officially tipping-off the season Nov. 9 when Temple visits Thompson-Boling Arena.

Tabb undergoes successful surgery

 Tennessee basketball athletic trainer Chad Newman reports that sophomore guard Josh Tabb underwent successful surgery to repair an orbital blow-out fracture to his right eye. The outpatient procedure was performed Monday afternoon in Knoxville. Tabb, who suffered the injury during practice on Tuesday, Oct. 16, is expected to be out for 7-10 days.

 As a freshman in 2006-07 the Carbondale, Ill., product averaged 3.5 points and 2.8 rebounds in 17.6 minutes of action. He played in each of the Vols’ 35 games, earning three starting assignments along the way.