Jan. 6, 2011

• John R. Wooden Award

MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin senior Jon Leuer has been selected as one of the Midseason Top 30 candidates for the John R. Wooden Award as announced Thursday by The Los Angeles Athletic Club. Selected by the Wooden Award National Advisory Board, the list is made up of 30 student-athletes who, based on their performances in November and December, are the early frontrunners for college basketball's most prestigious honor.

Leuer leads the Badgers and ranks fourth in the Big Ten averaging 19.3 points per game. He also ranks sixth in the conference in rebounds (7.3 per game), sixth in blocks (1.5 per game), fifth in 3-point field goal percentage (.468) and seventh in free throw percentage (.806). The Orono, Minn. native has led Wisconsin in scoring in 11 of 15 games and owns six 20-point outings this season.

Also on the watch list for the Naismith Trophy and the Senior CLASS Award, Leuer was recently named to the Mid-Season All-America team by CBSSports.com's Gary Parrish and is currently fourth in Ken Pomeroy's National Player of the Year rankings.

The Big Ten and Big 12 conferences boast the largest number of players chosen to the list, with six each. Other conferences with multiple players represented include the ACC (5), Big East (5), Pac-10 (3), and the Mountain West (2). The Horizon, SEC and Ohio Valley each had one player selected.

Purdue (JaJuan Johnson, E'Twaun Moore) and No. 1-ranked Duke (Singler, Nolan Smith) were the only schools with two players on the midseason list. In a change from the past several years, half of the players chosen are seniors. Only two freshmen made the list: Ohio State's Jared Sullinger and Terrence Jones of Kentucky.

The 35th annual Wooden Award ceremony, which will include the announcement of the Men's and women's Wooden Award winners, a special tribute to Coach Wooden and Wooden Award founder Duke Llewellyn, and the presentation of the Wooden Award All American Teams and the Legends of Coaching Award, will take place the weekend of April 8-10, 2011.

About the John R. Wooden Award
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.  Previous winners include such notables as Larry Bird ('79), Michael Jordan ('84), Tim Duncan ('97), Blake Griffin ('09) and Maya Moore of Connecticut ('09). Ohio State's Evan Turner and Connecticut's Tina Charles won the Award in 2010.
 
Since its inception, the John R. Wooden Award has contributed close to a million dollars to universities' general scholarship fund in the names of the All American recipients. The Award has also sent more than 1,000 underprivileged children to week-long college basketball camps in the Award's name. Additionally, the John R. Wooden Award partners with Special Olympics Southern California (SOSC) each year to host the Wooden Award Special Olympics Southern California Basketball Tournament. The day-long tournament, which brings together Special Olympic athletes and the All Americans, takes place at The Los Angeles Athletic Club on the Friday prior to the John R. Wooden Award Ceremony.

Follow the candidates and get the latest news throughout the season by logging on to www.WoodenAward.com.

*indicates player chosen to the 2010 Wooden Award ballot