Jan. 17, 2012

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Freshmen Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist are among 25 players honored as the midseason finalists for the John Wooden Award it was announced live on ESPNU’s show “The Experts” Tuesday afternoon.

Davis leads the nation with 4.6 blocks per game and is merely two rejections shy of becoming UK’s best single-season blocker. The Chicago native averages 13.1 points and 10.2 rebounds per game for the second-ranked Wildcats. He’s notched nine double-doubles this season which ranks ninth nationally.

Kidd-Gilchrist has started all 18 games for UK and is the squad’s second-leading scorer at 13.4 points per game. He has logged three double-double efforts and 13 double-figure scoring games. He was named the SEC Player of the Week for tallying career-highs in points (24) and rebounds (19) in a win over Louisville.

The 36th annual Wooden Award ceremony marks the 25th anniversary of the selection of the Naval Academy’s David Robinson as the inaugural Wooden Award winner.

The Player of the Year is selected each year by a large panel of voters. Voters are sports writers or sportscasters who collectively represent each of the 50 states, with the number of voters from each state dependent on the state’s population.

The Awards’ criteria does include that the student-athlete must have a cumulative grade point average of 2.00 or higher throughout the candidate’s college career. The top candidates are announced prior to the NCAA Tournament and are listed on a ballot that is sent to over a 1,000 voters for the men’s award and over 250 voters for the women’s award.

The winner will be announced the weekend of April 6-8, 2012.