Wisconsin center Frank Kaminsky completed a sweep of college basketball Player of the Year awards, taking home the John Wooden Trophy Friday night.
According to ESPN, organizers of the "The College Basketball Awards Presented by Wendy's" ceremony in Los Angeles mistakenly sent a number of media outlets two news releases that implicated two different players as the Wooden winner. As the recipient of all the other individual awards, it was no surprise to see Kaminsky confirmed as the Wooden recipient.
The highest individual award in college basketball, Kaminsky's fellow finalists were Kentucky's Willie Cauley-Stein, Notre Dame's Jerian Grant, Ohio State's D'Angelo Russell and Duke's Jahlil Okafor.
Kaminsky will add the Wooden trophy to a collection this year that includes the Naismith Award, the Oscar Robertson Trophy and the NABC and Associated Press player of the year.
In the women's game, UConn forward Breanna Stewart took home the John Wooden Award after leading the Huskies to a third consecutive National Title. Like Kaminsky, she too finished a clean sweep of all the top individual honors this season. Though her team did not finish undefeated, they beat opponents by an average of 40 points per game. Leading the way, Stewart averaged about 17 points and eight rebounds a game.
"To win an award with John Wooden's name on it is an unbelievable honor,'' she said at the inaugural college basketball awards show on ESPN2. "It just shows a lot of hard work pays off.''
After two seasons barely seeing the court for Wisconsin and a breakout junior season, Kaminsky put together a truly memorable senior campaign. Leading Wisconsin to a 36-win season and a Big Ten championship, Kaminsky averaged around 19 points and eight rebounds per game while also shooting 55 percent from the field, .416 beyond the arc and .780 from the line.
"This has all become pretty overwhelming, but it's a tremendous honor and I'm humbled by all of the attention," Wisconsin's first Wooden Award winner said in a statement. "Winning the Wooden Award and all of the others is something you dream about, but rarely is a reality.
"I'm grateful for everyone who has helped me along the way, my family, teammates, coaches, staff and Badgers fans everywhere. My career at Wisconsin has been more than I could have imagined and I will always take the memories and friendships with me wherever I go."