11 Wooden Award Finalists Announced; None Are Players for West Coast Teams

The 11 finalists for the 10th annual John Wooden Award, announced Tuesday at a press luncheon at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, reflect the dominance this season of Eastern college basketball.

Four of the players are from the Atlantic Coast Conference and three are from eastern or southeastern schools. The West has no representatives, the closest on the list being Danny Manning of Kansas, a Big Eight Conference school.

The finalists: Senior guard Mark Price of Georgia Tech, ACC; Senior forward Len Bias of Maryland, ACC; senior center Brad Daugherty of North Carolina, ACC; senior guard Johnny Dawkins of Duke, ACC; junior forward Walter Berry of St. John’s, Big East; senior guard Dell Curry of Virginia Tech, Metro; junior center William Bedford of Memphis State, Metro; senior forward Kenny Walker of Kentucky, Southeastern; senior center Roy Tarpley of Michigan, Big Ten; junior guard Steve Alford of Indiana, Big Ten, and sophomore forward Danny Manning of Kansas, Big Eight.

The only player from the West Coast receiving votes was Reggie Miller of UCLA.

The nominations are made by a national panel that includes longtime basketball expert Pete Newell, broadcast and newspaper experts, and Wooden himself, who announced the nomination list Tuesday at the luncheon. All geographical areas of the country are represented on the nominating panel.

About 1,000 sportswriters and sportscasters nationally will vote for the winner, to be announced at halftime of the nationally televised ACC title game March 9 at Greensboro, N.C. The award will be presented April 2 at a dinner at the LAAC, which sponsors the award.