Wooden List Cut to Five

Three players who will participate in the Final Four -- Nick Collison of Kansas, T.J. Ford of Texas and Dwyane Wade of Marquette -- are among the top five vote-getters for the John R. Wooden Award, which goes to the college basketball player of the year.

Hollis Price of Oklahoma and David West of Xavier are the other two finalists for the Wooden Award, which will be announced April 12 at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

The top five players and their coaches will be invited to Los Angeles for the ceremony.

Also on the 10-player Wooden All-American team are Kirk Hinrich of Kansas, Jason Gardner of Arizona, Brandin Knight of Pittsburgh, Emeka Okafor of Connecticut and Josh Howard of Wake Forest.

All 10 players are first-time Wooden All-Americans. The list has two sophomores (Ford and Okafor), one junior (Wade) and seven seniors.

More than 1,000 media members and college basketball experts voted in the last three weeks for the Wooden Award. To qualify for the award, a player must have a cumulative grade-point average of at least 2.0.

UCLA’s Marques Johnson was the first winner of the award in 1977. Duke’s Jay Williams won it last year.

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The Atlantic 10 Conference has no plans to dump St. Bonaventure or apply additional sanctions against the school and its troubled program.

“St. Bonaventure remains a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference and reports to the contrary should be put to rest,” said the Rev. Nicholas Rashford, Saint Joseph’s University president and head of the league’s presidents council.

Sanctions were imposed last month after the school declared center Jamil Terrell ineligible for violating NCAA junior college transfer guidelines. The sanctions included stripping the team of six victories and barring it from the conference tournament.

St. Bonaventure players responded to the sanctions by boycotting the final two games.

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Hawaii junior guard Carl English announced he will make himself eligible for the NBA draft.

English, 22, is scheduled to graduate in May with a degree in liberal studies but has one year of eligibility remaining. If he decides to return for his senior season, he has until June 19 to remove his name from the June 26 draft.

He has not yet signed with an agent, leaving the opportunity for him to return with the Rainbows.

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Lorene Ramsey of Illinois Central College in East Peoria, Ill., has retired after winning more games than any women’s basketball coach at any college level. Ramsey, 66, had a career record of 887-197 in 33 seasons.