LOS ANGELES – University of Dayton redshirt sophomore
Obi Toppin was named to the 10-player Wooden All-America Team today by the Los Angeles Athletic Club. The players on the All-America team were the top vote- getters for the 2020 John R. Wooden Award Presented by Wendy's, which goes to the national player of the year according to the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
The five finalists for the Wooden Award are (in alphabetical order) Udoka Azubuike of Kansas, Luka Garza of Iowa, Markus Howard of Marquette, Myles Powell of Seton Hall, and Toppin.
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 presentation of the Wooden Award to the men's and women's most outstanding college basketball player will take place next week on ESPN.
A 6-foot-9 forward from Brooklyn, Toppin is the University of Dayton's first consensus All-American, having been picked a First Team All-American by The Sporting News, Associated Press, USBWA and NABC.
He has been selected the College Basketball Player of the Year by the USBWA, the NABC, The Athletic, USA Today, CBSsports.com, NBC Sports and Rivals. Sports Illustrated announced its Top 50 College Basketball Players for the 2019-20 season this week, and Toppin's uniform number matched his ranking – "1."
Toppin is a finalist for the Atlanta Tip-Off Club's Citizen Naismith Trophy, the Los Angeles Athletic Club's John R. Wooden Award, and the Basketball Hall of Fame's Karl Malone Award.
He finished the year averaging 20.0 points and 7.5 rebounds a game, and shooting .633 (245-387) from the field, .390 (32-82) from 3-pt. range and .702 (99-141) from the line. According to Synergy Basketball, Toppin led the nation with 1.20 points per possession while he was on the floor.
He was the only player in the country who averaged 20.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and shot over 60% from the field. He also had the best field goal percentage in the last five years of any Division I player who averaged 20 points a game.
Toppin led the A-10 in FG% (.633, 245-387), and was second in scoring (20.0). He was the only player in the conference to be listed in both the top ten in FG% and 3-pt. FG% (8th, .390, 32-82). He was also fifth nationally in field goal percentage, even though he took more than double the number of three-pointers the rest of the top 10 combined.
The athletic high Flyer also led the nation in dunks (107). His last five college field goals were dunks.
Toppin lifted the Flyers to a 29-2 record, setting the most wins in school history even though UD did not get a chance to play any post-season games. Dayton ended the year ranked third in the nation and will carry a 20-game win streak into 2020-21, the longest active streak in Division I. UD won its third A-10 regular season championship in the last five years, but this season went undefeated (18-0) for the first time.
