LOS ANGELES – Auburn forward Jabari Smith (Fayetteville, Ga.) capped off a historic freshman season by earning a spot on the 2022 John R. Wooden Award® Presented by Wendy's® All-American Team™ as announced by the Los Angeles Athletic Club on Wednesday.
Smith was one of 10 men's basketball student-athletes, who were the top vote-getters in the quest to earn college basketball's most prestigious honor this year. He was joined on the Wendy's All-American Team by Ochai Agbaji of Kansas, Kofi Cockburn of Illinois, Johnny Davis of Wisconsin, Chet Holmgren of Gonzaga, Jaden Ivey of Purdue, Bennedict Mathurin of Arizona, Keegan Murray of Iowa, Drew Timme of Gonzaga and Oscar Tshiebwe of Kentucky.
The recently crowned USBWA and NABC National Freshman of the Year, Smith is just the second Auburn men's basketball player to garner John R. Wooden Award All-America honors next to Chris Porter in 1999.
It marked his sixth All-America nod as he was previously recognized by USBWA, The Associated Press, NABC, The Sporting News and Sports Illustrated – the most of any Tiger in program history.
Agbaji, Davis, Murray, Timme and Tshiebwe moved on as the five finalists for the 2022 John R. Wooden Award Presented by Wendy's Men's Player of the Year and have been invited to Los Angeles for the 46th annual presentation of the John R. Wooden Award Presented by Wendy's Gala.
Voting took place from March 14-21, 2022. As insisted upon by Coach Wooden at the Award's creation 45 years ago, all players were certified by their universities as meeting or exceeding the criteria of the John R. Wooden Award.
About the John R. Wooden Award
Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award Program hosts the most prestigious honors in college
basketball recognizing the Wooden Award Most Outstanding Player for men and women, the Wooden Award All American Teams for men and women and the annual selection of the Wooden Award Legends of Coaching recipient. Honorees have proven to their university that they meet or exceed the qualifications of the John R. Wooden Award as set forth by Coach Wooden and the Wooden Award Steering Committee, including making progress towards graduation and maintaining at least a 2.0 cumulative GPA. Previous winners include Larry Bird ('79), Michael Jordan ('84), Tim Duncan ('97), Kevin Durant ('07), Candace Parker ('07; '08), Maya Moore ('09; '11), Chiney Ogwumike ('14), Breanna Stewart ('15 and '16) and last year's recipients, Paige Bueckers of Connecticut and Luka Garza of Iowa.
Since its inception, the John R. Wooden Award has contributed nearly one million dollars to the universities' general scholarship fund in the names of the Wooden Award All American recipients and has sent more than 1,000 underprivileged children to week-long college basketball camps. Additionally, the John R. Wooden Award partners with the Special Olympics Southern California (SOSC) each year to host the Wooden Award Special Olympics Southern California Basketball Tournament. The day-long tournament brings together Special Olympics athletes and Wooden Award All Americans and coaches in attendance. It is hosted at the Los Angeles Athletic Club during the John R. Wooden Award Weekend.
For up-to-date information on the Wooden Award, please go to www.woodenaward.com and follow the Wooden Award on Facebook at www.facebook.com/woodenaward and @WoodenAward on Twitter and Instagram.
