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Jimmer Fredette completed a sweep of college basketball's national Player of the Year Awards on Friday night, winning the 2011 John R. Wooden award, and becoming BYU's first Wooden Award winner since Danny Ainge in 1981.
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But not even Ainge matched Fredette's feat of achieving consensus National Player of the Year recognition.
Fredette won every major NPOY citation, adding the Wooden Award to the Naismith Award, the Oscar Robertson Trophy and the Adolph Rupp Trophy, in addition to being named player of the year by the Associated Press, the NABC, Sporting News, Basketball Times, CBSSports.com and SI.com.
Fredette was also named to every notable All-American First Team and takes his place alongside Ainge as a BYU Basketball icon whose number will one day hang in the Marriot Center rafters.
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Fredette received the Wooden Award as the culmination of an evening-long ceremony in Los Angeles. Fredette was joined in L.A. by the other award finalists: UConn's Kemba Walker, Ohio State's Jared Sullinger, Duke's Nolan Smith and Arizona's Derrick Williams.
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An official release on the Wooden Award news:
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LOS ANGELES - The John R. Wooden Award, the preeminent men's collegiate basketball player of the year award, was presented this evening at The Los Angeles Athletic Club by Coach John Wooden's son, Jim, to BYU senior Jimmer Fredette.
Jim Wooden made the announcement and presented Fredette with the Wooden Award trophy whose unique design was inspired by Coach Wooden's idea of the "total basketball player." The 35th annual Wooden Award is the first since the passing of both Coach Wooden and Wooden Award co-founder Duke Llewellyn in June of 2010.
Fredette earned college basketball's most prestigious honor after averaging a nation-leading 28.9 points while taking the Cougars to the Sweet 16, a 32-5 record, and a regular-season Mountain West Conference title. He also shot 89.4 percent from the free throw line and led his team in assists (4.3). In 2011, he was the MWC Player of the Week seven times and he averaged 32.7 points in three NCAA Tournament games.
With his sixth National Player of the Year award, Fredette is also the consensus Player of the Year for the 2010-11 season. The 6-2 guard is the second player from the Mountain West Conference to win the Wooden Award since Utah's Andrew Bogut in 2005, and the first BYU Cougar since Danny Ainge in 1981.
A native of Glens Falls, NY, Fredette broke Ainge's BYU scoring record, finishing his career with 2,599 points, including a school-record 1,068 points in 2010-11. He had 15 30-point games and four 40-point games during his remarkable senior season.
Voters include nearly 1,000 members of the college basketball media who selected and ranked 10 players.
All five men's finalists were in attendance at the Wooden Award Gala. Fredette had 3,761 points, followed by Connecticut's Kemba Walker with 3,356; Ohio State's Jared Sullinger with 2,637; Duke's Nolan Smith with 2,371; and Arizona's Derrick Williams with 1,913.
The ten-player All American team also included Ben Hansbrough, Notre Dame; JaJuan Johnson, Purdue; Kawhi Leonard, San Diego State; Marcus Morris, Kansas; and Jacob Pullen, Kansas State.
All players proved to their universities that they are making progress toward graduation and are maintaining at least a cumulative 2.0 GPA. Voters were asked to take into account performance during the regular season and postseason through the Elite Eight as well as a player's character and academic performance, essential components of an outstanding player. The winner received a contribution from The Los Angeles Athletic Club for their university's general scholarship fund.
In addition to honoring the Wooden All American teams, the "Legends of Coaching" Award was presented by Nan Wooden Muehlhausen, Coach Wooden's daughter, to Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo, who led the Spartans to their 14th straight NCAA Tournament appearance this year. Maya Moore won the 2011 John R. Wooden Award on the women's side. Previous winners include such notables as Larry Bird ('79), Michael Jordan ('84), Tim Duncan ('97), and Blake Griffin ('09). Ohio State's Evan Turner and Connecticut's Tina Charles won the Award in 2010.
Since its inception, the John R. Wooden Award has contributed close to a million dollars to universities' general scholarship fund in the names of the All American recipients. The Award has also sent more than 1,000 underprivileged children to weeklong college basketball camps in the Award's name. Additionally, the John R. Wooden Award partners with Special Olympics Southern California (SOSC) each year to host the Wooden Award Special Olympics Southern California Basketball Tournament. The tournament, which brings together Special Olympic athletes and the All Americans, takes place at The Los Angeles Athletic Club tomorrow morning.
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