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North Carolina’s RJ Davis among best bets to win 2024 Wooden Award

Davis will be the primary scoring option with the greenest of green lights with Harrison Ingram (Spurs) and Armando Bacot (Jazz) having departed for the NBA.

FILE - North Carolina guard RJ Davis (4) brings the ball down court during the first half of a second-round college basketball game against Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament, Saturday, March 23, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. The first-team Associated Press All-American player is returning to North Carolina to play his fifth season of eligibility, which could have him ultimately contending for the school and Atlantic Coast Conference career scoring record. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)
FILE - North Carolina guard RJ Davis (4) brings the ball down court during the first half of a second-round college basketball game against Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament, Saturday, March 23, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. The first-team Associated Press All-American player is returning to North Carolina to play his fifth season of eligibility, which could have him ultimately contending for the school and Atlantic Coast Conference career scoring record. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)Read moreChris Carlson / AP
    by Andrew Norton, Action Network
    Published 

Last April, Zach Edey secured his second consecutive Wooden Award after averaging 25.2 points, 12.2 rebounds and 2.2 blocks on 62.3% shooting while leading Purdue to a Big Ten championship and the national title game appearance.

But now that Edey has departed for the NBA, the Wooden Award is open for the taking again. Which players are most likely to cement their name as a college basketball legend this season?

Let’s look at the odds for the favorites and dive into our favorite Wooden Award picks for the 2024-25 season.

2025 Wooden Award odds

  1. Hunter Dickinson (Kansas), RJ Davis (North Carolina) +800

  2. Mark Sears (Alabama) +1400

  3. AJ Storr (Kansas) +1800

  4. LJ Cryer (Houston) +2000

  5. Johnell Davis (Arkansas) +3000

  6. Khalif Battle (Gonzaga), VJ Edgecombe (Baylor) +3500

  7. Liam McNeeley (UConn), Zeke Mayo (Kansas), Tyrese Proctor (Duke), Ryan Nembhard (Gonzaga) +4000

  8. Grant Nelson (Alabama), Graham Ike (Gonzaga), Tamin Lipsey (Iowa State) +4500

Odds via DraftKings

2025 Wooden Award best bets

As with any individual award futures bet in basketball, several considerations apply, including a player’s expected offensive usage, injury history, potential team success and overall efficiency.

The Wooden Award winner has been on a team that has finished in the top 10 in KenPom’s adjusted efficiency margin metric every year since Doug McDermott won the award in the 2013-14 season. It is not enough to be a great player on a mediocre team.

Here are my best bets to win the Wooden Award this coming season:

RJ Davis (+800, DraftKings)

As alluded to above, it is not imperative for a Wooden Award candidate’s team to always be the top-ranked in the nation, but they must be competitive. Two of the past four Wooden Award winners (Oscar Tshiebwe and Luka Garza) played on No. 2-seeded teams during March Madness.

Voters have become more lenient with players on their team’s overall standing. It is of the utmost importance that a Wooden Award contender’s team is in the mix for a deep tournament run, but being on the best team is unnecessary in voters’ eyes.

Extremely stacked teams like Kansas and Gonzaga roster multiple players who could absorb a substantial amount of offensive usage, resulting in a somewhat watered-down stat line for other Wooden Award odds favorites like Hunter Dickinson, AJ Storr, Khalif Battle, Ryan Nembhard and Graham Ike.

However, there will be a few players who will put up monstrous stats while keeping their teams in the national conversation. RJ Davis is one such player. After averaging 21.2 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists on a hyper-efficient 43/40/87 shooting split last season, Davis surprisingly returned to Chapel Hill for another year.

His decision to come back for a super senior season is partially because he’s undersized for the next level; interest from NBA teams might not be where Davis wants it to be right now.

Regardless, he will be the primary scoring option with the greenest of green lights with Harrison Ingram (Spurs) and Armando Bacot (Jazz) having departed for the NBA. Five-star freshman Ian Jackson and Belmont transfer Cade Tyson will be solid secondary scorers for the Tar Heels, but Davis has a case for being the best scoring guard in college basketball.

Cooper Flagg (odds not available)

The last time a freshman won the Wooden Award was in the 2018-19 season when Zion Williamson took the nation by storm, leading the Duke Blue Devils to a 32-6 record and an ACC Tournament championship.

Many college basketball experts and fans expect Cooper Flagg, an incoming freshman at Duke, to do the same thing.

Flagg was the only college basketball player to be named to the USA Select Team that has been competing against the Olympic team in an attempt to prepare them for this summer. Being the only collegiate player on the Select Team is already impressive enough, but Flagg has not even started his first game for the Blue Devils yet.

Flagg should be Duke’s de facto offensive option, but his defense could be what makes him a favorite to win the Wooden Award this upcoming season. On that end of the floor, I would liken his play to Andrei Kirilenko, a three-time All-NBA Defensive Team selection.

Flagg undoubtedly enters this season as the most highly anticipated freshman since Williamson. He will be a two-way force that leads Duke to a top seed in the NCAA Tournament and possibly an ACC championship, too.

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