NCAA Basketball: Ranking the last 10 Wooden Award winners

The Wooden Award is the most prestigious award in college basketball, but not every award winner from the past decade is created equally.

Every year, college basketball players across the country vie for the Wooden Award.

The award is annually given to the best of the best, just like the Heisman Trophy is awarded in college football.

Obviously, the award’s importance doesn’t match the importance of winning a national title for most players. Team glory is something to hold on to forever, stamped in the minds of fans for the rest of time.

But winning the award still separates a player from the thousands who took the court alongside him for the season.

Still, not every winner stacks up from year to year.

Over the past ten years, a handful of iconic players have taken home the Wooden Award. The voters haven’t discriminated by age, with one freshman, two sophomores, two juniors, and five seniors winning it.

There’s only been one repeat winner in the history of the award: Ralph Sampson, who last won it in 1982-83. There won’t be a repeat winner this year either, with seniors winning four of the last five awards; junior Jalen Brunson won last year but is now with the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks.

Before we look forward, however, we must look back.

Here’s a definitive ranking of the past ten Wooden Award winners.