Durant, Parker are winners of Wooden Award

Kevin Durant said he gets asked “20 to 30 times a day” if he’s going to leave Texas and enter the NBA draft.

Saturday at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, he received one more piece of hardware that suggests he might be ready.

The 6-foot-9 freshman forward won the 31st annual Wooden Award as the nation’s top college basketball player. It was the seventh national-player-of-the-year honor for Durant, who won in a landslide, collecting 4,351 points in voting. Greg Oden of Ohio State was second with 2,858 points.

Durant became the first freshman to win the Wooden Award, but said his decision to turn pro won’t be influenced by the number of awards in his trophy case.

“None of these awards is going to matter in that decision,” said Durant, who averaged 25.8 points and 11.1 rebounds this season. “I’m just trying to figure out where I’ll be next year physically and emotionally. Whether I want to take on an 82-game schedule or if I want to keep having fun in college.”

Those who played and coached against him last season have little doubt he is ready because of his rare combination of size, outside shooting ability and quickness.

“He’s virtually impossible to defend,” said guard Acie Law IV of Big 12 Conference rival Texas A&M.; “You kind of get in awe a little bit playing against him. You catch yourself watching and trying to see how he does the things he does. I’ve never seen the things he can do at that size.”

Durant said the key was to not think of himself as a freshman.

“Just because you’re a freshman doesn’t mean you have to be scared,” he said. “It’s just a class level. It doesn’t determine what kind of basketball player you are.”

And though Durant is clearly NBA ready -- many experts tag him as the first or second draft pick should he come out this year -- he said he was inspired by the players at Florida, who made a joint decision to stay in school and make a run at consecutive national titles.

“I totally respect what they did,” Durant said. “All those guys came back and they loved playing with each other so much that they decided to forget the money and everything that comes with the NBA. That was cool.”

Billy Gillispie, newly hired as Kentucky’s coach, said he hopes that the Florida example starts a trend.

“I think it’s great for college basketball for them to stay,” said Gillispie, who coached Texas A&M; last season. “The NBA will always be there, but if you leave college, it’s gone. And if you stick around long enough to get your degree, you have something that can never be taken away from you.”

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Candace Parker of national champion Tennessee won the women’s Wooden Award. Parker led the Southeastern Conference in scoring at 19.6 points a game, leading the Volunteers to a 34-3 record.

Former Purdue coach Gene Keady was honored with the Legends of Coaching Award.

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Gillispie, who officially accepted the Kentucky job Friday, said mixed emotions are the norm with a new job.

“There’s always buyer’s remorse,” he said. “You think about the great people you’re leaving, but you can’t look back, you have to look forward.”