Duke freshman Cooper Flagg and Auburn star Johni Broome headlined the players named to the Wooden Award top 15 national ballot Saturday morning, as revealed on ESPN’s “College GameDay.”
Flagg, the former No. 1 recruit and projected No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft, enters the final weekend of the regular season as the perceived front-runner for the award. He has put together one of the best freshman seasons of all time while leading Duke to a likely No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
After producing standout performances early in the season against Kentucky, Arizona and Auburn, Flagg has been even better in ACC play. Heading into the regular-season finale against North Carolina, he ranks second in the ACC in scoring (21.5 PPG), 10th in rebounding (7.0 RPG) and seventh in assists (4.3 APG) in conference play.
In seven games in January, Flagg averaged 25.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.9 assists while shooting 57.9% from the field and 42.9% from 3-point range. He set an ACC freshman record with 42 points against Notre Dame in January and has scored at least 20 points on 13 occasions, also ranking in the top three nationally in multiple defensive efficiency metrics.
If Flagg were to win, he would be just the fourth freshman to claim the award, following Kevin Durant (2007), Anthony Davis (2012) and Zion Williamson (2019).
Broome looked like the clear favorite for the Wooden Award after two months of the season, averaging 18.7 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.7 blocks through 15 games for top-ranked Auburn. He consistently produced massive performances in the Tigers’ biggest nonconference games, putting up 20 points and 9 rebounds against Houston, 21 points and 10 rebounds against Iowa State, 20 points and 12 rebounds against Duke, 21 points and 20 rebounds against Ohio State and 23 points and 11 rebounds against Purdue.
He then suffered an ankle injury against South Carolina on Jan. 11, ultimately missing just two games but slowing his momentum. Broome is still averaging 18.0 points, 10.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.4 blocks despite back-to-back single-digit scoring efforts in the first two games of this month.
Other leading candidates include Purdue’s Braden Smith, who ranks second in the country in assists and has been the best guard in the nation this season; Alabama’s Mark Sears, the veteran guard averaging 28.0 points and 5.6 assists over his past five games; and Wisconsin’s John Tonje, arguably the best transfer in the country after a recent nine-game stretch in which he put up 24.8 points per game.
Three players on the top 15 national ballot weren’t on the late midseason top 20 list announced in mid-February: Houston’s L.J. Cryer, Tonje and Tennessee’s Zakai Zeigler. Tennessee is the only team with multiple players on the ballot, with the Volunteers represented by Zeigler and Chaz Lanier.
The men’s Wooden Award has been given out every year since 1977, starting with UCLA’s Marques Johnson.
Complete national ballot for the 2025 John R. Wooden Award:
Johni Broome, Auburn
Walter Clayton Jr., Florida
L.J. Cryer, Houston
Hunter Dickinson, Kansas
Eric Dixon, Villanova
Cooper Flagg, Duke
PJ Haggerty, Memphis
Dylan Harper, Rutgers
Kam Jones, Marquette
Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton
Chaz Lanier, Tennessee
Mark Sears, Alabama
Braden Smith, Purdue
John Tonje, Wisconsin
Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee
