Wise a Cousy Award finalist

January 5, 2010

Though UA senior point guard Nic Wise did not make the cut for the John Wooden midseason list of 30 players released Monday, he was named a finalist for the 2010 Bob Cousy Award, it was announced Tuesday by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

Wise is one of 20 NCAA Division I student-athletes on the list and one of two players from the Pacific 10 Conference, along with California’s Jerome Randle.

Arizona’s 5-foot-10, 177-pound guard from Houston, Texas, is averaging 15.1 points, 3.4 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game in 14 appearances this year. He shoots 40.5 percent (64-of-158) from the field, including 34.5 percent (20-of-58) from behind the arc, to go with 92.6 percent (63-of-68) from the free throw line.

He ranks eighth among Pac-10 players in scoring, seventh in assists and seventh in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.7).

The list of candidates will be cut in half on Feb. 1 before the final five candidates are announced on March 1. The seventh-annual winner of the Bob Cousy Award will be announced on Monday, April 5, as part of the Final Four festivities in Indianapolis.

Bob Cousy Award Finalists:

Chris Warren, Ole Miss

Denis Clemente, Kansas State

Deonta Vaughn, Cincinnati

Devan Downey, South Carolina

Greivis Vasquez, Maryland

Jeremy Lin, Harvard

Jerome Randle, Cal

John Wall, Kentucky

Jon Scheyer, Duke

Kalin Lucas, Michigan State

Kemba Walker, Connecticut