Freshman forward Ben Simmons is regarded as one of the best players in college basketball but he won’t be winning one of the top awards in college basketball due to an off-the-court reason.
Jeff Goodman at ESPN reports that Simmons wasn’t eligible for the Wooden Award because he didn’t meet the academic requirements to be eligible for the award. According to LSU coach Johnny Jones, “From what I was told, he didn’t meet all of the requirements. He wasn’t certified by the school to be on the ballot.” An unnamed source said it was due to academic reasons.
The award that is named after legendary UCLA coach John Wooden requires nominees to be a full-time student and maintain a 2.0 cumulative GPA. Simmons has been benched once this season due to academic reasons.
Simmons seemed like the bad news didn’t effect him. Simmons godfather and assistant coach at LSU David Patrick said that Simmons reacting by remarking, “All I care about is winning.” Simmons would not be the first person to be excluded from the award for academic reasons. Carmelo Anthony was excluded from nomination for having a 1.8 GPA when he was at Syracuse.
The Wooden Award is an award that takes a more well-rounded consideration into determining if someone deserves to win. In addition to their play and academic performance, consideration is also taken for “those who contribute to the team effort” and “exhibit strength of character, both on and off the court.”
Some will say that academics shouldn’t be taken into consideration for a “basketball player of the year” type award such as this. And given that more and more top basketball schools are focusing more on athletics than academics, there is a point to be made. But on the other hand, Ben Simmons is also a “student-athlete.” And even though the “student” part of that name is becoming more and more irrelevant by the year, he’s still in college and is still getting an education.
John Wooden’s philosophy was to create well-rounded men through basketball, not to churn out basketball jocks with no other discernible skills. Ben Simmons is being excluded because he cannot maintain a 2.0 GPA. That’s a “C” average, no one is asking the man to be an academic All-American here. While it may seem old-fashioned and outdated, excluding the academic requirements for the Wooden Award completely goes against what John Wooden was all about as a head coach. To take that away, you may as well call it the Player of the Year and not after John Wooden anymore. That’s the entire reason why those standards are put in place and it’s up to Ben Simmons, not anyone else, to meet those standards. Not for anyone else to make it easier for him to win. I’m sure, given the news of his potential shoe deal, Simmons is going to be just fine if he’s nominated for the Wooden Award or not.
[ESPN]
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