Arizona's Azuolas Tubelis named to Wooden Award's 15-player 'national ballot'

LOS ANGELES — Arizona’s Azuolas Tubelis is no longer just a regional name in college basketball.

Before the Wildcats played their regular-season finale at UCLA on Saturday, the junior forward was named to two exclusive lists for national honors. He became one of 15 players on the Wooden Award’s national ballot after earlier this week being one of 15 players named to the late-season watch list for the Oscar Robertson Trophy.

The Wooden Award and Robertson Trophy are two of college basketball’s major player-of-the-year awards, along with the Naismith Trophy and the AP Player of the Year. The National Association of Basketball Coaches and the Sporting News also issue notable national awards.

Entering Saturday as the Pac-12’s leader in both scoring (19.7) and rebounding (9.1), Tubelis is also one of two top candidates for the Pac-12’s Player of the Year award, which will be announced on Tuesday after a vote among the conference’s 12 head coaches.

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UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez, who’s also on the Wooden list, is considered a slight favorite for the conference award after leading the Bruins to the regular-season championship while averaging 17.3 points and 7.9 rebounds. The two were scheduled for a final head-to-head competition on Saturday at Pauley Pavilion.

The Wooden Award is scheduled to reveal the finalists from its national ballot on March 29. Voting is to be based on a player’s season through the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

Others named to the Wooden ballo: Armando Bacot, North Carolina; Antoine Davis, Detroit Mercy; Zach Edey, Purdue; Trayce Jackson-Davis, Indiana; Keyonte Johnson, Kansas State; Mike Miles Jr., TCU; Kris Murray, Iowa; Jalen Pickett, Penn State; Marcus Sasser, Houston; Drew Timme, Gonzaga; Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky; Jalen Wilson, Kansas; Isaiah Wong, Miami (Fla.).