Redick Wins Wooden Award As Nation's Top Player

LOS ANGELES - Duke's J.J. Redick capped an exceptional college career by winning the John R. Wooden award, presented Saturday to the nation's best basketball player. Redick completed a sweep of the men's player of the year awards with the honor and narrowly defeated Gonzaga's Adam Morrison for this year's trophy.

Redick collected 4,646 points and defeated Morrision by just 74 points, the third closest margin in the award's history. There is a panel of over 1,000 voters. Duke's Shelden Williams was third in the voting with 2,142 points, followed by Villanova's Randy Foye with 2,050 and Washington's Brandon Roy with 1,884.

"I'm extremely honored to received this award," Redick said. "All the candidates were very deserving. I never set out to win individual awards. To win is just a huge honor."

The award is named for the former UCLA coach who guided the Bruins to 10 NCAA championships in a 12-year span before retiring in 1975. UCLA's Marques Johnson was the first to win the award - two years after Wooden stepped down.

Redick, a 6-foot-4 senior, averaged 26.8 points this season - second in the country behind Morrison - and leaves Duke as the leading scorer in Atlantic Coast Conference history.

He is the fifth Duke player to win the award and the third in the last six years joining Christian Laettner (1992), Elton Brand (1999), Shane Battier (2001) and Jason Williams (2002). On the women's side, Duke's Alana Beard was the first woman to win the award in 2004.

Duke has two more winners than any other school as North Carolina is second with three. UCLA, St. John's are the only other schools with more than one winner while one Virginia player has won the award twice.

Redick Wins Wooden Award As Nation's Top Player

Players Mentioned

JJ Redick

Shelden Williams

Duke information

Redick Wins Wooden Award As Nation's Top Player

Players Mentioned

JJ Redick

Shelden Williams

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Duke information