Gonzaga's Drew Timme named Wooden Award finalist

It's the second year in a row for Timme, who was also named to the Wooden All-American team

Drew Timme was named among the five finalists for the John R. Wooden Player of the Year Award on Wednesday. Timme was also tabbed to the Wooden All-American team for the third consecutive season.

Timme finished his Gonzaga career as the program’s all-time leading scorer, an All-American and West Coast Conference Player of the Year award recipient. He averaged a career-best 21.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game while leading the Zags to the Elite Eight round of the NCAA Tournament. Timme was also a finalist for Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award, along with Naismith Trophy Player of the Year.

Timme was named to the West Region All-Tournament team after averaging 24.2 points per game, including a 36-point eruption in the Sweet 16, in GU’s four NCAA Tournament games.

Timme joins Purdue’s Zach Edey, Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis, Houston’s Marcus Sasser and Jalen Wilson from Kansas as finalists for the Wooden Award. The five candidates were selected from a pool of 15 players chosen earlier in March.

Edey was named the Big 10 Player of the Year following a historic season where he averaged 22.3 points, 12.9 rebounds, 2.1 blocks and 1.5 assists while recording a nation's-best 27 double-doubles. He became the first player in NCAA history to record 750 points, 400 rebounds, 70 blocks and 50 assists since blocks became an official stat. He helped lead the Boilermakers to a conference title before bowing out in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Jackson-Davis did it all as a senior for the Hoosiers, averaging 20.9 points, 10.8 rebounds, 4.0 and 2.9 blocks per game. He finished second in the conference in scoring, second in rebounding, seventh in assists, first in blocks and third in field goal percentage.

Wilson, the Big 12 Player of the Year, led the conference in scoring and rebounding while guiding the Kansas Jayhawks to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

As for Sasser, who recently declared for the NBA Draft as well on Thursday, was tabbed as the AAC’s Player of the Year and earned a nod to the Associated Press All-America first-team. The guard led the Cougars in scoring, averaging 16.8 points per game while shooting 38.4% from deep.

The 47th Wooden Award will be announced on April 4 on SportsCenter on ESPN.