Duke's Cameron Boozer wins 2026 men's Wooden Award

Duke's Cameron Boozer became just the fifth freshman to win the Wooden Award as the most outstanding men's college basketball player on Friday.

Boozer, a 6-foot-9 forward, joins Duke's Cooper Flagg (2025), Duke's Zion Williamson (2017), Kentucky's Anthony Davis (2012) and Texas' Kevin Durant (2007) as the only freshmen to win the award.

Considered the front-runner for most of the season, Boozer was one of three freshmen tipped as a finalist for the award, along with Arkansas' Darius Acuff Jr. and BYU's AJ Dybantsa. Michigan's Yaxel Lendeborg and Purdue's Braden Smith, both college veterans, were also finalists.

The award caps a dominant season for Boozer, who was also named the ACC Player of the Year, ACC Rookie of the Year and the ACC tournament MVP, after averaging a double-double for the Blue Devils with the ninth-best scoring mark nationally (22.5 PPG) and the 12th-best rebounding average in the country (10.2 RPG). He recorded double-doubles in 22 of his 38 collegiate games. He also distributed 4.1 assists per game and made 39.1% of his shots from 3, powering Duke's top-10 mark in adjusted offensive efficiency. The Blue Devils won both the ACC regular season and tournament titles this season and were the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament. They lost to 2-seed UConnon a buzzer-beater in the Elite Eight.

In addition to winning the Wooden Award, Boozer was named a consensus first-team All-American. He also won Naismith Player of the Year, AP Player of the Year, NABC Player of the Year, NABC Freshman of the Year, USBWA National Freshman of the Year, Pete Newell Big Man Award, Karl Malone Award and the Lute Olson Award.

Boozer is a projected top-three pick in this year's NBA draft.

The men's John R. Wooden Award has been given out every year since 1977, starting with UCLAstar Marques Johnson. Cooper Flagg won the award last year.br/]