Rickey Paulding Named Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 Candidate
8/2/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Aug. 2, 2002
Columbia, Mo.-The John R. Wooden Award Preseason Selection Committee today announced the Wooden Award Preseason All-American Team. The list of 50 student-athletes who, based on last year's individual performance and team records, are the early frontrunners for college basketball's most coveted trophy. Among those named to the prestigious list was University of Missouri junior forward Rickey Paulding.
After having a solid campaign his freshman season, the 6-5 Paulding had a breakout year last season averaging 11.9 points and 3.9 rebounds per contest. Paulding established himself as one of college basketball's young stars, particularly in the NCAA Tournament last March. He was the Tiger's leading scorer during their Elite Eight run and was named to the All-West Region team in the Tournament.
Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award is bestowed on the nation's best player at an institution of higher education who has proven to his university that he is making progress toward graduation and maintaining a cumulative 2.0 GPA.
As part of his preseason workouts, Paulding also recently wrapped up a tour of Istanbul and Italy during the last part of July. The trip, which featured some of the best and brightest talent in college basketball, was made possible by NYC Hoops. Paulding averaged 10.8 points and 5.2 rebounds in five games that were played during the tour. He had his best game of the tournament against the Turkish National Team when he poured in 18 points and proved to be the defensive stopper throughout the tour, usually guarding the opposition's best scorer.
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