Brandon Miller Added to the Wooden Award List
When the original list of finalists for the Wooden Award was released, Brandon Miller was not on it. It now seems that the committee has changed its mind as the star freshman was recently added as a finalist for the nation's best collegiate player.
Miller is undoubtedly one of the best players in college basketball and by far the best freshman, but the connection to the shooting involving former teammate Darius Miles might have played a role his initial absence from the list.
The first sign that Miller's connection might lead to exclusion was the SEC weekly honors, where Arkansas' Nick Smith and Kentucky's Oscar Tshiebwe won the Freshman of the Week and Player of the Week honors, respectively. This was after Miller, just after more information came out and Nate Oats said his controversial "wrong place, wrong time" comment, scored a career-high 41 points against South Carolina and followed it with a 24-point performance in a win against Smith's Razorbacks.
But it seemed the concerns were short-lived as Miller would receive the SEC Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year awards voted on by the coaches, along with receiving All-SEC First Team honors. He would also receive the same set of awards given by the Associated Press.
Now Miller is once again in contention for the Wooden Award, and like other national award lists, he is the only freshman. Here is the full list below:
Armando Bacot, North Carolina
Antoine Davis, Detroit Mercy
Zach Edey, Purdue
Trayce Jackson-Davis, Indiana
Jaime Jaquez Jr., UCLA
Keyontae Johnson, Kansas State
Mike Miles Jr., TCU
Brandon Miller, Alabama
Kris Murray, Iowa
Jalen Pickett, Penn State
Marcus Sasser, Houston
Drew Timme, Gonzaga
Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky
Azuolas Tubelis, Arizona
Jalen Wilson, Kansas
Isaiah Wong, Miami (FL)
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