When the e-mail arrived this morning from woodenaward@laac.net, I hit the delete button without reading. I’ll confess my mistake. There was news contained within, but I have thought so little of the John R. Wooden Award for such a long period of time I dismiss any memo from its organizers as aggressively as I would an obvious spam.
The Los Angeles Athletic Club announced Saturday morning its 15-player ballot for the 2016 Wooden Award, and there was no mention of LSU freshman Ben Simmons.
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Whatever the Tigers’ failings as a team and whatever few flaws he has exhibited in his performance, one must have a very loose grip on reality not to construe Simmons as one of the 15 best college basketballers this season.