Petrusev named Wooden All-American

Zag sophomore one of 10 players honored

LOS ANGELES — Gonzaga’s Filip Petrusev was named to the John R. Wooden Award All-American Team. The Los Angeles Athletic Club announced the team Wednesday.

The Wooden Award All American Team is made up of 10 student-athletes who were the top vote-getters in the quest to earn college basketball’s most prestigious honor. The ten-player team, alphabetically, consists of: Udoka Azubuike (Kansas), Devon Dotson (Kansas), Malachi Flynn (San Diego State), Luka Garza (Iowa), Markus Howard (Marquette), Filip Petrusev (Gonzaga), Myles Powell (Seton Hall), Payton Pritchard (Oregon), Obi Toppin (Dayton), and Cassius Winston (Michigan State). The five finalists for the 2020 John R. Wooden Award Presented by Wendy’s are: Azubuike, Garza, Howard, Powell, and Toppin.

Petrusev, who became the ninth Bulldog to be named to the Wooden All-American Team, averaged a team-high 17.81 points per game, which ranked third in the West Coast Conference. He topped the league shooting 56.5 percent from the field. The sophomore was second in the WCC grabbing 7.77 rebounds per game, 5.42 defensive boards per game (third in WCC) and 2.35 offensive rebounds per game (fourth in WCC). He was ninth blocking 0.81 shots each game.

In conference play, Petrusev scored 18.5 points, while shooting 57.8 percent from the field. This past season, he had eight double-doubles, which ranked second in the WCC. The Belgrade, Serbia, native reached double-digit scoring in all but two games. He reached at least 20 points a team-high nine times in 2019-20, including a career-high 31 points in a win at Santa Clara.

Petrusev drew 7.8 fouls per 40 minutes, which was the third-most in the nation. His 228 free-throw attempts ranked as the second-most taken in the country, while his 150 makes from the line ranked 14th. Petrusev was named the WCC Player of the Year this season. He was named to the West Coast Conference All-Freshman Team last season.

Petrusev was named one of five finalists for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award. He was tabbed second team All-American by the NABC and USA Today, and third team by the Associated Press and USBWA.

Voting took place from March 16-23. As insisted upon by Coach Wooden at the Award’s creation 44 years ago, all players were certified by their universities as meeting or exceeding the criteria of the John R. Wooden Award. The 44th annual presentation of the John R. Wooden Award to the men’s most outstanding college basketball player will take place April 7, during the 2 p.m. PT edition of SportsCenter on ESPN.