SEC Basketball: Yante Maten and Collin Sexton make Wooden Award list

SEC basketball placed Georgia’s Yante Maten and Alabama’s Collin Sexton on the Wooden Award Midseason Top 25 list. Both Maten and Sexton have work to do to make the final list of ten nominees.

SEC basketball players Yante Maten of Georgia and Collin Sexton of Alabama made the January cut for the John Wooden Award. The award is presented annually to the Nation top college basketball player.

Five ACC and Big East players are on the Midseason Top 25 list. The Big 12 and the Pac-12 conference each claim three players. Duke, Arizona and North Carolina each have two players on the list.

There also are several teammates among the top 25: Duke’s Grayson Allen and Marvin Bagley; Arizona’s Deandre Ayton and Allonzo Trier; Villanova’s Mikal Bridges and Jalen Brunson; and North Carolina’s Luke Maye and Joel Berry.

Not quite elite?

SEC basketball has stepped up this season, sporting the number three ranked national RPI  behind the Big 12 and the ACC. Seven SEC basketball teams rank in the top 25. Does the inclusion of only two players on the Midseason Top 25 list for the Wooden Award suggest SEC basketball is still not yet in the elite tier of basketball conferences?

If the SEC isn’t quite yet elite, for the two SEC basketball players on the list, Yante Maten and Collin Sexton, the same is true.