James Announced to Wooden Award Midseason All-American Team

Jan. 30, 2007

LOS ANGELES - Marquette sophomore Dominic James has been named to the Wooden Award Midseason All-American Team, the selection committee announce on Monday. The list of 30 nominees, all front-runners for the prestigious award, is based on individual player performance and team records during the first half of the season.

James leads the Golden Eagles and as of Jan. 29 ranks sixth in the BIG EAST with 16.5 points per game. He is also fourth in the conference in steals per game (2.21) and seventh in assists (4.65) per game. He was named to the John R. Wooden Preseason Top 50 list in October.

Nine conferences are represented on the list: ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, BIG EAST, Conference USA, Pac-10, SEC, Western Athletic Conference and Horizon League. The most represented conferences are the ACC and SEC, each have six candidates. The BIG 12 has five and BIG EAST, four. In all, 12 seniors, 10 juniors, five sophomores and three freshmen were selected. In addition to James, other finalists from the BIG EAST include Aaron Gray (Pittsburgh), Demetris Nichols (Syracuse) and Curtis Sumpter (Villanova).

Players not on the midseason list are still eligible for the national ballet. It will be announced in March and will consist of 20 players with proven commitments of progress toward graduation and maintenance of a 2.00 grade point average. Over 1000 voters, comprised of college basketball experts and sports media members across America, will vote to determine the 10-member Wooden Award All-American Team and player of the year recipient.

The Wooden Award All-American Team will be announced, March 27. The Awards ceremony will take place at The Los Angeles Athletics Club on April 7, where the top five male and female finalists will be invited for the awards ceremony and will receive a contribution from The Los Angeles Athletic Club for their university's general scholarship fund.

A listing of all 30 candidates can be found at www.woodenaward.com.