The 2000 John R. Wooden Award will be presented to the college basketball player of the year at the 24th annual John R. Wooden Award program. The voters will select The Wooden Award All-American Team and determine which player will receive the Wooden Award Trophy as the outstanding collegiate basketball player in the United States. Ballots are due back from the voters Monday, March 27 at noon Pacific time. An announcement of the 10-player Wooden All-America team will be made on Fox Sports Net's 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts in all time zones on Tuesday, March 28.

Wright, the Wildcats' top scorer (15.7 ppg) and rebounder (8.7 rpg), leads the Pac-10 Conference for both double-doubles (12) and field goal percentage (.587). He is also shooting .716 from the free throw line and has helped lead the UA to an overall record of 24-6 and a mark of 13-3 in the league, which puts the team in second place and one game behind Stanford. The Wildcats will host the Cardinal on Thursday in McKale Center at 8:39 p.m. MST

A player named to the ballot must be in good standing at his current university and must be maintaining a minimum 2.0 grade average at that school. The Award presentation, which will include the presentation of the Wooden Award All-America team, and the Legends of Coaching Award to Mike Krzyzewski of Duke, will be held at The Los Angeles Athletic Club on Friday, April 7, 2000 at 4 p.m. PST/7 p.m. EST and will be televised nationally on Fox Sports Net for the third straight year.

The Los Angeles Athletic Club, one of the nation's finest and oldest private athletic clubs, inaugurated the John R. Wooden Award in 1977, and past winners include Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan, David Robinson and Larry Bird. Duke's Elton Brand won the Wooden Award in 1999. 2000 John R. Wooden Award Ballot
(Players listed alphabetically)

Player              Ht.     Yr.   Pos.  School
Courtney Alexander  6-5     Sr.     G   Fresno State  
Shane Battier       6-8     Jr.     F   Duke  
Chris Carrawell     6-8     Sr.     F   Duke  
Mateen Cleaves*     6-2     Sr.     G   Michigan State  
Khalid El-Amin      5-10    Jr.     G   Connecticut   
Marcus Fizer        6-8     Jr.     F   Iowa State  
A.J. Guyton         6-1     Sr.     G   Indiana  
Tony Harris         6-0     Jr.     G   Tennessee   
Eddie House         6-1     Sr.     G   Arizona St.  
Dan Langhi          6-11    Sr.     F   Vanderbilt  
Mark Madsen         6-8     Sr.     F   Stanford  
Kenyon Martin       6-8     Sr.     C   Cincinnati  
Desmond Mason       6-6     Sr.     F   Oklahoma State  
Chris Mihm          7-0     Jr.     C   Texas  
Troy Murphy         6-9     So.     F   Notre Dame  
Eduardo Najera      6-8     Sr.     F   Oklahoma  
Scoonie Penn        5-10    Sr.     G   Ohio State  
Morris Peterson     6-6     Sr.     F   Michigan State  
Chris Porter*       6-7     Sr.     F   Auburn  
Quentin Richardson  6-6     So.     G   DePaul  
Etan Thomas         6-8     Sr.     F   Syracuse  
Michael Wright      6-8     So.     F   Arizona  


* 1999 Wooden All-American

The 1 John R. Wooden Award winner will be announced April 7, 2000 at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time on FOX Sports Net. The 10-player Wooden All-America team will be announced March 28, 2000 on Fox Sports Net's 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts in all time zones.