John R. Wooden Award Men’s Late Midseason Top 20 Watch List was released on Wednesday by the Los Angeles Athletic Club, which included Florida Gators star guard Walter Clayton Jr. among its ranks.
The senior originally from Lake Wales, Florida, leads the Gators in scoring with 17.5 points per game while also holding the top spot with 64 3-point field goals made and 94 assists dished out. Clayton also ranks among the Southeastern Conference’s top 10 in scoring (eighth, 17.5), field goal percentage (ninth, 45.4%), assists (eighth, 4.0), free throw percentage (fifth, 87.0%), 3-point field goals made (fourth, 2.7), 3-point field goal percentage (sixth, 36.6%) and minutes (10th, 31.8).
The guard has posted six games of 25 points or more this season — and eight games with four or more 3-point field goals — in games played this season. He also made a 3-point shot in a school record 44 straight games before sitting out against the Vanderbilt Commodores with an injured ankle.
Wooden Award Late Midseason Top 20
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Airious “Ace” Bailey, Rutgers
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Johni Broome, Auburn
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Walter Clayton Jr., Florida
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Hunter Dickinson, Kansas
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Eric Dixon, Villanova
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Cooper Flagg, Duke
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Keshon Gilbert, Iowa St
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PJ Haggerty, Memphis
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Dylan Harper, Rutgers
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Kasparas Jakučionis, Illinois
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Curtis Jones, Iowa State
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Kam Jones, Marquette
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Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton
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Alex Karaban, UConn
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Chaz Lanier, Tennessee
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Ryan Nembhard, Gonzaga
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Maxime Raynaud, Stanford
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Mark Sears, Alabama
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Javon Small, West Virginia
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Braden Smith, Purdue
About the John R. Wooden Award
“Selected by a panel of national college basketball experts, the list comprises 20 student-athleteswho are frontrunners for the most prestigious honors in college basketball: the Wooden AwardAll-American Team and the Wooden Award Most Outstanding Player,” according to the award’s website.
“Previous Wooden Award All-American Hunter Dickinson (Kansas 2024 & Michigan 2021)continues to lead the list. Rutgers has two players represented on the Wooden Award LateMidseason List.”
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. named to Wooden Award watch list
