Jayhawks’ Udoka Azubuike one of five finalists for John R. Wooden Award
Kansas senior center Udoka Azubuike is one of five finalists for the 2020 John R. Wooden Award, presented annually to college basketball’s top player, the Los Angeles Athletic Club announced Wednesday.
The list of five consists of Azubuike, a 7-footer from Delta, Nigeria, plus Luka Garza (Iowa), Markus Howard (Marquette), Myles Powell (Seton Hall) and Obi Toppin (Dayton).
The winner will be announced Tuesday during the 4 p.m. Central Time edition of SportsCenter on ESPN.
The L.A. Athletic Club also listed its 10-player Wooden All-America team Wednesday. KU’s Devon Dotson joined Azubuike, Garza, Powell, Howard and Toppin on the squad.
Others on the team: Malachi Flynn (San Diego State), Filip Petrusev (Gonzaga), Payton Pritchard (Oregon) and Cassius Winston (Michigan State).
Azubuike, the Big 12 player of the year, averaged 13.7 points and 10.5 rebounds a game for 28-3 Kansas.
He led NCAA Division I in field-goal percentage at 74.8%. His career percentage of 74.4% broke the all-time Division I field-goal percentage record of UCF’s Tacko Fall (74.0%).
Dotson, a 6-2 sophomore from Charlotte, North Carolina, averaged 18.1 points a game. A first-team all-Big 12 selection, Dotson became the fifth Jayhawk to lead the Big 12 in scoring, joining Drew Gooden in 2002, Wayne Simien in 2005, Frank Mason in 2017 and Dedric Lawson in 2019.
Dotson has scored 986 career points in two seasons at Kansas.
