Men's Basketball: Butler on Wooden Midseason List
January 05, 2010 10:46 AM | General
By Steve Stone for MSNsportsNET.com
January 5, 2010
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| Da'Sean Butler |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia men's basketball player Da'Sean Butler is one of 31 players named to the presitigious John R. Wooden Award midseason watch list, announced today by the Los Angeles Athletic Club’s John R. Wooden Award Committee.
Butler, a senior from Newark, N.J., leads No. 8 West Virginia with 16.6 points per game, the 12th-best mark in the Big East. Butler is shooting nearly 50 percent (49.3) from the floor and is grabbing 6.1 rebounds per game as a guard and forward.
Butler earned Big East Player of the Week honors on Nov. 30 after being named tournament MVP of the 76 Classic. He averaged 18.7 points during West Virginia's three-game run, including a game-high 26 points and six rebounds in the championship game against Portland.
The reigning second team all-Big East player recently hit a game-winning jumper in WVU's 63-62 victory over Marquette on Dec. 29, scoring 17 points.
Butler is eighth in the conference in free throw shooting (81.1 percent) and 15th in assist to turnover ratio (1.8).
The Big East leads the midseason Top 30 with six players selected. The Big 12 and ACC follow with five selections, the Big Ten with four, the SEC with three, the Pac-10, Mountain West and West Coast with two and the Horizon League and Ivy League with one selection each. Overall, more than 90 different players received votes.
Just as players who are not on the preseason list are eligible for the midseason Top 30, players who do not make the midseason list are still eligible for the national ballot, which will be selected in March and will consist of approximately 20 players, chosen by the Wooden Award National Advisory Board Committee. Players selected to the national ballot will have to be certified by their university as making progress toward graduation and maintaining a cumulative 2.0 GPA.
