Purdue star Zach Edey, the reigning Wooden Award winner leading the No. 1-ranked Boilermakers, topped the award's Midseason Top 25 list announced Wednesday.
Edey, a 7-foot-4 center, is looking to become only the second two-time winner in Wooden Award history. He won it last season after averaging 22.3 points and 12.9 rebounds and is the clear favorite to go back-to-back this season.
The Canadian is averaging 22.3 points and 10.6 rebounds, shooting 63.4% from the field and blocking 2.3 shots per game. He's tallied nine double-doubles and scored 35 points on two separate occasions.
The last player to win the Wooden Award in consecutive seasons was Virginia's Ralph Sampson, who took home both the 1982 and 1983 awards.
Edey's top competition for the award is likely to come from blueblood programs. Kansas teammates Kevin McCullar Jr. and Hunter Dickinson are both enjoying productive seasons, with McCullar (20.1 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 4.5 APG) in the midst of a breakout campaign and Dickinson (19.4 PPG, 12.4 RPG) averaging career-highs in both scoring and rebounding.
Duke forward Kyle Filipowski is averaging 17.4 points and 8.6 rebounds and finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds in Tuesday's win over Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, arguably the best guard so far this season has been North Carolina's RJ Davis, scoring 20.6 points per game.
There are only two freshmen on the midseason list, Kentucky's Reed Sheppard and Baylor's Ja'Kobe Walter. Sheppard is averaging 11.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.5 steals, while Walter is putting up 15.3 points and 4.2 rebounds and just scored 16 points in Tuesday's win over No. 18 BYU.
North Carolina (Davis and Armando Bacot), Kansas (McCullar and Dickinson) and Kentucky (Sheppard and Antonio Reeves) lead the way with two players apiece on the list.
The complete Wooden Award Midseason Top 25:
Max Abmas, Texas
Armando Bacot, North Carolina
L.J. Cryer, Houston
Johnell Davis, Florida Atlantic
RJ Davis, North Carolina
Hunter Dickinson, Kansas
Zach Edey, Purdue
Kyle Filipowski, Duke
PJ Hall, Clemson
David Jones, Memphis
Dalton Knecht, Tennessee
Tyler Kolek, Marquette
Jaedon LeDee, San Diego State
Caleb Love, Arizona
Kevin McCullar Jr., Kansas
Tristen Newton, UConn
Antonio Reeves, Kentucky
Baylor Scheierman, Creighton
Mark Sears, Alabama
Reed Sheppard, Kentucky
KJ Simpson, Colorado
Isaiah Stevens, Colorado State
Wade Taylor IV, Texas A&M
Tyson Walker, Michigan State
Ja'Kobe Walter, Baylor
