ORU’s Green Named to Wooden Preseason List
KANSAS CONQUERERS: ORU startled the basketball nation with the 79-72 win over Kansas in Lawrence Nov. 15. Caleb Green, left, and Ken Tutt, right, had a great game. Head Coach Scott Sutton expects more great things from his team this year.
GTR Newspapers photo
Oral Roberts University’s Caleb Green is one of 50 players named to the Wooden Award Preseason All-America team. This is the first step toward being eligible for the Wooden Award, given annually to college basketball’s top player.
Green is the only player from the Mid-Continent Conference on the preseason list, and is one of only two players from Oklahoma (OSU’s JamesOn Curry is the other) to make the list.
Green, a 6-foot-8 senior forward, is a two-time Associated Press honorable mention All-America and a two-time Mid-Con Player of the Year. As a junior, Green averaged 20.8 points and 8.8 rebounds per game in leading ORU to a 21-12 record, its second straight Mid-Con regular-season title, the Mid-Con Tournament title and the school’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in 22 years.
ORU is once again picked to win the Mid-Con and advance to the NCAA Tournament, and the accolades continue to pour in for Green. In addition to being named preseason player of the year by every major publication and in the Mid-Con’s own preseason poll, Green was named a preseason All-American by Athlon Sports, and ranked among the nation’s top power forwards by Lindy’s (No. 9) and CBSSportsline.com (No. 11).
Green enters his final season at ORU on the verge of history. With 1,805 career points and 874 career rebounds, Green should become only the second player in ORU history (Mark Acres is the other) and the first in Mid-Con history to reach 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds. Green, who has averaged 663 points in the last two seasons, is 604 points shy of breaking the Mid-Con career scoring mark of 2,408 points set by UMKC’s Michael Watson (2000-04).
If he stays on his career average of 9.3 rebounds per game, Green should break the Mid-Con record of 910 rebounds, set by Valparaiso’s Chris Ensminger (1992-96), sometime in late November.
The Wooden Award Preseason All-America list can be found at www.woodenaward.com.
ORU plays at Tulsa Nov. 28 and has home games Dec. 2 (Akron) and Dec. 4 (Lamar).
Updated 11-21-2006
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