Ohio State's Evan Turner Wins Wooden Award

Basketball star will skip senior season to enter NBA draft

LOS ANGELES – Ohio State's Evan Turner won the John R. Wooden Award Friday night, claiming yet another trophy as the nation's top basketball player.

Turner was chosen Friday night over Kentucky freshman John Wall, Syracuse's Wesley Johnson, West Virginia forward Da'Sean Butler and Kansas guard Sherron Collins for the 34th Wooden Award at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

Turner already won The Associated Press player of the year award and the Naismith Award. The Big Ten's player of the year averaged 20.4 points, 9.2 rebounds and 6.0 assists while making more than 52 percent of his shots and leading the Buckeyes to the regional semifinals of the NCAA tournament.

The 6-foot-7 ball-handling swingman announced Tuesday he's skipping his senior season to enter the NBA draft.

"It's definitely a great honor," Turner said. "The other nominees are great players and great people. Thank God for basketball, and thank God for everybody else."

Connecticut's Tina Charles won the women's Wooden Award. Florida's Billy Donovan received a Legends of Coaching award, with the 44-year-old becoming the youngest coach to win the honor.

Turner received 3,715 points in the voting by more than 1,000 media members and college basketball experts. Wall, the Wildcats' NBA-bound point guard, finished a close second with 3,331 points, while Johnson was third with 1,871.

Turner joins a list of winners including Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Elton Brand, Kevin Durant and 2009 winner Blake Griffin. The former Oklahoma star, who missed the entire NBA season with the Los Angeles Clippers with a knee injury, presented the trophy to Turner.

Turner has won an armful of player-of-the-year trophies despite missing 4 1/2 weeks of the regular season with broken bones in his back. After Ohio State rallied from a 1-3 Big Ten start to win a share of the conference title, Turner won the Big Ten tournament's most outstanding player award while leading the Buckeyes to the title.

Ohio State then reached the third round the NCAA tournament before falling to Tennessee.

Turner was selected to the All-America team last month, receiving all but one possible first-team vote. He's the first Ohio State player to win the award.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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