The Wooden Award trophy made a pit stop at Gonzaga’s nonconference game on Dec. 28 against UCLA at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.
Ryan Nembhard recently got a look at the piece of hardware given to the top player in college basketball. Gonzaga’s point guard is still among the candidates to potentially take home the trophy come April.
Nembhard, who’s still leading the country in assists at 9.6 per game, was named to the Wooden Award Midseason Top 25 Watch List, the Los Angeles Athletic Club announced Tuesday.
Teammate Graham Ike was initially named to the award’s preseason Top 50 Watch List, but the senior forward was not included among the 25 players named on Tuesday. Players on the Top 25 list are considered “strong candidates” for the Wooden Award, but those not selected are still eligible for the postseason honor.
Nembhard is ahead of Louisiana Tech’s Sean Newman (9.4 apg) for the national lead in assists and one of two players averaging better than nine per game.
The senior from Ontario has dished out 153 assists and is easily on pace to surpass the 243 assists he had last season — a mark that broke Josh Perkins’ single-season school record.
Nembhard, the first player in the country to reach 100 assists this season and the fastest GU player to 100 in a season, also ranks fifth in the NCAA with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 4.03.
The younger brother of former Gonzaga and current Indiana Pacers point guard Andrew Nembhard, Ryan is nearly averaging a double-double this season, scoring 11.6 points per game to go with 3.5 rebounds and 1.8 steals.
He set a career high with 14 assists against Davidson at the Battle 4 Atlantis and broke the tournament record with 39 assists in three games.
Purdue’s Zach Edey, who helped the Boilermakers beat Gonzaga in the 2024 Sweet 16 and eventually led Matt Painter’s team to the national championship game, won the Wooden Award each of the past two seasons.
Other players to make the Top 25 list were Rutgers’ Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper; Auburn’s Johni Broome; Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr.; North Carolina’s RJ Davis; Kansas’ Hunter Dickinson; Villanova’s Eric Dixon; Oklahoma’s Jeremiah Fears; Duke’s Cooper Flagg; Iowa State’s Keshon Gilbert; Memphis’ PJ Haggerty; Mississippi State’s Josh Hubbard; Illinois’ Kasparas Jakucionis; Texas’ Tre Johnson; Marquette’s Kam Jones; Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner; Connecticut’s Alex Karaban; Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier and Zakai Zeigler; Maryland’s Derik Queen; Stanford’s Maxime Raynaud; Alabama’s Mark Sears; Purdue’s Braden Smith; and Texas A&M’s Wade Taylor IV.
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