Auburn’s Jabari Smith, Walker Kessler named Wooden Award Finalist

The 15 finalists for the John Wooden award were announced Saturday morning and two Auburn Tigers made it.

Freshman superstar Jabari Smith and center Walker Kessler both made the cut.

Smith leads Auburn with 17.1 points per game and is second in rebounds at 6.9 per contest. Smith has been one of the best shooters in the country, making 43.6% of his 3-point attempts this season. He is not shy about pulling the trigger either, he takes 5.3 per game.

Smith, the highest-rated signee in program history, is widely considered one of the top prospects in the NBA Draft and a future top-3 pick. He is also a finalist for the Karl Malone Award, given to the best power forward in college basketball.

Kessler has become the nation’s best shot-blocker in his first season at Auburn.

The 7-foot-1 sophomore has blocked a program-record 140 shots and is leading the nation with 4.6 blocks per game. He is also averaging 11.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game.

Kessler was recently named a finalist for the Kareem Abdul-Jabjar Award, which is for the nation’s best center.

The duo is a major reason why Auburn just won the SEC title outright in Neville Arena for their third championship in the past five seasons under Bruce Pearl.