O’Bannon adds Wooden Award to collection
By Randy Satterburg
Daily Bruin Staff
It was not much of a surprise Friday afternoon at the Los
Angeles Athletic Club when UCLA senior Ed O’Bannon was named the
1995 Wooden Award winner  an honor bestowed annually upon the
nation’s top college basketball player.
After being left off the list of finalists for the Naismith
Player of the Year, O’Bannon has now collected several other honors
and awards  USBWA Player of the Year, Chevrolet Player of the
Year, NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player and the Wooden Award
 to make up for the apparent snub by the Naismith voters.
"In my opinion, this is the ultimate award," O’Bannon said. "It
is an unbelievable award, and I really appreciate all the hard work
my team put into this season, and what everyone involved in the
program did in helping us accomplish our goals this year."
Unlike the Naismith Award, the voters who selected O’Bannon for
the Wooden Award were able to do so on the basis of an entire
regular season, in addition to the early rounds of the post-season
tournament, because of a later voting deadline. As such, O’Bannon,
who averaged a team-leading 20.4 points and 8.1 rebounds in leading
the Bruins to their first national championship in 20 years, was a
logical selection.
The awards’ namesake, John Wooden, could not have been more
pleased to see the name of a UCLA player when he opened up the
envelope. The last Bruin to win the Wooden Award was Marques
Johnson in 1977.
"I think (Ed O’Bannon) did all things better when they were
really needed, and that’s the sign of a great athlete," Wooden
said. "He certainly has to qualify as one of the finest forwards to
ever play at UCLA, or in college basketball for that matter."
This was the 19th presentation of the John R. Wooden Award, so
named in tribute to Wooden, the former UCLA head coach who led the
Bruins to a record 10 national championships. Past winners have
included the likes of Michael Jordan, David Robinson, Larry Bird
and most recently, Glenn Robinson.
O’Bannon’s 4,396 points in the balloting placed him far ahead of
the other finalists  Michigan State’s Shawn Respert (3,247
points), Wake Forest’s Randolph Childress (3,224), North Carolina’s
Jerry Stackhouse (3,224) and Arkansas’ Corliss Williamson
(2,887).