How Tre Jones, Vernon Carey Measure Up to Wooden Award Top 20

Vernon Carey Jr. and Tre Jones were both chosen for the Late Season Top 20 Watch List for the John Wooden Award, given to the top college basketball player in the nation.

Carey and Jones have led the Blue Devils to an 18-3 start and an 8-2 record in ACC play. Carey currently leads the league in field goal percentage (.597) and is the only player ranked in the top five in the ACC in scoring (third, 17.8), rebounding (fourth, 8.9) and field goal percentage. The most recent ACC Player and Freshman of the Week, Carey has recorded 10 double-doubles on the season, with each having been 15-10 games and eight coming as 20-10 efforts.

Jones currently leads the ACC in assists (6.8) and is third in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.39). Defensively, Jones' 2.0 steals per game rank second in the conference. He’s one of just two players in a major conference to be averaging at least 15.0 points, 6.0 assists, 2.0 steals and a 2.0 assist-to-turnover ratio. At 15.0 points per game, Jones is 11th in the ACC in scoring, while his .440 field goal percentage ranks 10th.

Duke is one of three schools with two players on the Wooden Award Watch List, along with Kansas (Udoka Azubuike and Devon Dotson) and Maryland (Anthony Cowan Jr. and Jalen Smith).

Six Blue Devils have previously won the award:

Christian Laettner, 1992

Elton Brand, 1999

Shane Battier, 2001

Jason Williams, 2002

JJ Redick, 2006

Zion Williamson, 2012

No other school has more than four winners (UNC). BYU, Kansas, Oklahoma, St. John’s, Texas, UCLA and Virginia are the only other schools with multiple winners, at two each.

Tre Jones has a higher assists average than any of the other Watch Listers. Vernon Carey doesn’t lead any category, but he’s in the top five in rebounding average (fifth), effective field goal percentage (third) and Player Efficiency Rating (PER) (second).

Here’s a comparison of the 20 Watch Listers in several key categories. (WS is win-shares, like PER an advanced metric measuring the overall contribution of a player.)

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