Senior averaging a career-best 17.4 points per game and leading the nation in three-point FG percentage
TUCSON, Ariz. ?- The University of Arizona’s Salim Stoudamire was named to the Wooden Award Midseason All-America team, it was announced by the John R. Wooden Award Committee.
Stoudamire was included on a list of 30 student-athletes named to the midseason watch list for the Wooden Award, which is given annually to college basketball’s player of the year. He was one of three Pacific-10 Conference players to make the list.
Stoudamire, a 6-foot-1, 179-pound senior guard from Portland, Ore., is averaging a team-leading 17.4 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game. He is shooting 52.3 percent (123-of-235) from the field, including a nation’s-best 54.4 percent (68-of-125) from three-point range, and 90.7 percent (68-of-75) from the free throw line. Stoudamire has finished in double figures 19 times in 2004-05, including nine games with 20 or more points.
The Wooden Award national ballot, which will be selected in March and will consist of approximately 20 players who have proven to their universities that they are also making progress toward graduation and maintaining a cumulative 2.0 grade point average. Over 1,000 voters, comprised of sports media members and college basketball experts across the nation, will then cast their votes to determine both the ten-member All-America team as well as the player of the year recipient.
The 2005 award ceremony, which will include the presentation of the Men’s and Women’s Wooden Award, the Wooden Award All-America teams, and Legends of Coaching award, will be held at The Los Angeles Athletic Club on April 9, 2005, and will be broadcast live on a national CBS telecast. The top five male and female finalists will be invited to Los Angeles for the awards ceremony and will receive a contribution from the John R. Wooden Award Scholarship Fund for their university’s general scholarship fund.
Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award is the most prestigious individual honor in college basketball. Previous winners include such notables as Michael Jordan (1984), Larry Bird (1979), Tim Duncan (1997), and last year’s recipient, Jameer Nelson.
