BATON ROUGE – LSU sophomore forward Jordan Mickey, one of two players in the Southeastern Conference averaging a double double, was named to the Midseason Top 25 Tuesday for the 2015 John R. Wooden Award announced by the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
The list was selected by a poll of national college basketball experts.
The leading candidates will be further pared to 20 top players in early February. Fifteen top players who have proven to their universities that they are also making progress toward graduation and maintaining at least a cumulative 2.0 GPA will be submitted to the voters on the ballot prior to the NCAA Tournament. Every year, players make the ballot that are not on the preseason or midseason lists. Voting will take into consideration the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament. The Wooden Award All American Team will be announced the week of the “Elite Eight” round of the NCAA Tournament.
Mickey is averaging 15.9 points per game (6th in the SEC), 10.6 rebounds per game (2nd in the SEC) with a league leading block average of 3.6 a game. He is also third in the league goal percentage at 52 percent (92-177).
He is one of three players from the SEC on the midseason 25 joining Willie Cauley-Stein of Kentucky and Bobby Portis of Arkansas.
The 39th annual Wooden Award ceremony will honor the Men’s and Women’s Wooden Award winners, and will include the presentation of the Wooden Award All American Teams on April 10-12, 2015. Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award is the most prestigious individual honor in college basketball. It is bestowed upon the nation’s best player at an institution of higher education who has proven to his or her university that he or she is making progress toward graduation and maintaining a minimum cumulative 2.0 GPA.
Follow the candidates and get the latest news throughout the season by going to the Wooden Award facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/WoodenAward or twitter feed @WoodenAward.