Villanova’s Josh Hart and Duke’s Grayson Allen highlight the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 announced Tuesday.
Several universities feature multiple players on the list: Duke (Allen, Harry Giles, and Jayson Tatum), Kansas (Devonte’ Graham, Frank Mason III, and Josh Jackson), Kentucky (Edrice Adebayo, De’Aaron Fox, and Malik Monk) and Oregon (Chris Boucher, Dillon Brooks, and Tyler Dorsey) lead the honors with three candidates apiece, while Indiana, North Carolina, Villanova, Virginia, and Xavier each have two players each on the Preseason Top 50.
The trend of recognizing outstanding freshmen continues with seven named to the list: Adebayo, Fox, and Monk of Kentucky; Jarrett Allen of Texas; Miles Bridges of Michigan State; Markelle Fultz of Washington; Giles and Tatum of Duke; Jackson of Kansas; Lauri Markkanen of Arizona; Dennis Smith, Jr. of NC State.