{"id":2265,"date":"2016-04-08T22:20:42","date_gmt":"2016-04-09T03:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=2265"},"modified":"2017-07-08T14:57:07","modified_gmt":"2017-07-08T19:57:07","slug":"buddy-wins-wooden-award-officially-the-best-college-player-of-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=2265","title":{"rendered":"Buddy Wins Wooden Award, Officially the Best College Player of 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

We can cut to the chase and crown Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield as the best college basketball player in the year 2016.\u00a0 Today, the Sooner sharpshooter won the John Wooden Award, the most prestigious trophy given in college basketball.\u00a0 Hield, who led his team to the Final Four this past week in Houston, averaged 25.0 ppg this season, his fourth in Norman.\u00a0 He becomes the second Sooner to be the Player of the Year in the past eight years as Blake Griffin won the Wooden in 2009.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Hield finished the year\u00a0with a rebounding average of\u00a0 5.7 rpg and shot 55 percent from the two and 46 percent from the three.\u00a0 He was also deadly at the foul line, making 88 percent\u00a0of his\u00a0free throws.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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As\u00a0the personality of Buddy Hield came out this season, he became the face of\u00a0college basketball, as popular a player this\u00a0sport has seen\u00a0in many a year.\u00a0 The\u00a0forty minute version of Stephen\u00a0Curry of the\u00a0National Basketball Association. Hield was always smiling even in defeat.\u00a0A\u00a0standing\u00a0ovation in Lawrence this year by Jayhawk fans is a testament of his gleeful, ebullient and positive\u00a0presence both on\u00a0and off the court.\u00a0 One also must remember he\u00a0is as cold-blooded a\u00a0shot maker the nation has seen in a Wooden winner.\u00a0 His three point shooting average is the highest in the history of this\u00a0award.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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\u00a0It will not be long before we see\u00a0“Buddy Buckets”\u00a0smile\u00a0in various commercials, locally and nationally.\u00a0\u00a0Hield will make millions on his first\u00a0NBA contract and is predicted to be a first line player at most, and\u00a0a long career in professional basketball is awaiting.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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This has been the year of the Villanova Wildcats, the National Champions of 2016, the team that beat the Oklahoma Sooners in the Final Four by 44 points.\u00a0 Sure, not the best day for OU and Buddy Hield.\u00a0 But in retrospect, Buddy Hield and this Sooner team, beat the National Champions in this title year for Nova, on a neutral court, also in a blowout.\u00a0 Buddy Hield, the best there was in 2016 had a lot to do with that day too.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Photo:\u00a0<\/span> A historic season from Buddy Hield earned the Oklahoma senior this season’s Wooden Watch award.\u00a0\u00a0 Credit:\u00a0 Eddie Perlas\/ESPN Images<\/cite><\/p>\n

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We can cut to the chase and crown Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield as the best college…<\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[267,11],"tags":[510,487,636,645,16,311,620,644],"class_list":["post-2265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-college-sports","tag-blake-griffin","tag-buddy-hield","tag-final-four","tag-national-basketball-association","tag-oklahoma-sooners","tag-stephen-curry","tag-villanova-wildcats","tag-wooden-award"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":174,"today_views":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2265"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2277,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265\/revisions\/2277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}