STARKVILLE — Mississippi State senior guard Dee Bost was one of 50 players named Monday to the Wooden Award Preseason Watch List, as announced by the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
The list is made up of 50 student-athletes who, based on last year’s individual performance and team records, are the front-runners for college basketball’s most prestigious honor.
The Concord, N.C., standout enters his final season at MSU with 1,120 career points. He is 65 assists shy of breaking the school record of 514 set by Derrick Zimmerman from 2000-03.
“It’s a great honor,” Bost said. “When you look at the list and see all the names, I’m just blessed to be mentioned with them.”
Bost has started all 89 games he has appeared in and is averaging 12.6 points. A year ago, he averaged 15.3 points and 6.3 assists en route to garnering second-team All-Southeastern Conference honors.
Seven players from the SEC were named to the list.
Ohio State sophomore forward Jared Sullinger was a Wooden Award All-American and finalist a year ago after averaging 17.2 points and 10.2 rebounds before opting to return to Columbus for a second season.
For the first time, a school had four players chosen to the Preseason Top 50 when North Carolina returners Harrison Barnes, John Henson, Kendall Marshall, and Tyler Zeller were selected.
Ohio State (Sullinger, William Buford, and Aaron Craft) and Vanderbilt (Festus Ezeli, John Jenkins, and Jeffery Taylor) had three players chosen. Six schools had two players named to the Preseason List: California (Jorge Gutierrez, Allen Crabbe), Connecticut (Jeremy Lamb, Alex Oriakhi), Memphis (Will Barton, Joe Jackson), Syracuse (Scoop Jardine, Kris Joseph), and UCLA (Reeves Nelson, Joshua Smith).
Nineteen of the 50 players named were from the Big East (10) and the Big Ten (9). The SEC had seven players chosen, followed by the ACC, Big 12, and Pac-12 each with four.
The 2012 event will honor the Men’s and Women’s Wooden Award winners, and will include the presentation of the Wooden Award All-American Teams and the Legends of Coaching Award. It will take place the weekend of April 6-8, 2012.
MSU will begin practice Friday, Oct. 14, and will play its first exhibition game Oct. 29 against Florida Tech.
The regular season is slated to begin on Nov. 7 at home against Eastern Kentucky as part of the 2K Sports Classic.
Fans can get an early look at the Bulldogs on Oct. 14 during Maroon Madness. The event begins immediately following MSU’s 7 p.m. volleyball match against the University of Kentucky at Humphrey Coliseum.
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