April 3, 2008
Notre Dame, Ind. – Irish sophomore Luke Harangody (Schererville, Ind.) has been named to 10-member John R. Wooden Award All-America team. He is the second Notre Dame player to earn a spot on the Wooden team. Former Irish All-American Troy Murphy was a two-time honoree in both 2000 and 2001.
Joining Harangody on the list are: Tyler Hansbrough (North Carolina), Brandon Rush (Kansas), Kevin Love (UCLA), Chris Douglas-Roberts (Memphis), Derrick Rose (Memphis), D.J. Augustin (Texas), Michael Beasley (Kansas State), Stephen Curry (Davidson) and Chris Lofton (Tennessee).
The five finalist for the Wooden Award are Augustin, Beasley, Curry, Hansbrough and Love.
A panel of more than 1,000 voters, comprised of sports media members and college basketball experts from around the nation cast their ballots. Voters selected 10 players from the 24 athletes listed on the ballot, and ranked them from one to 10. Voters were asked to take into account performance during the regular season and postseason through the NCAA tournament Elite Eight as well as a player’s character and academic performance, essential components of an outstanding player in the eyes of Coach John Wooden. All players on the Wooden All-America team were certified by their schools as maintaining a 2.0 grade point average at their current school.
The 6-8, 251-pound forward was named to the Associated Press All-America second team on Monday as he became the ninth Irish player named to one of the three AP All-America teams and the first since Murphy in 2001. Harangody finished sixth in the voting.
The 2008 BIG EAST Player of the Year and a first team all-conference honoree, has been named to several All-America teams. Harangody led the Irish in scoring and rebounding as he averaged 20.4 points and 10.6 rebounds and became just the second player in BIG EAST history to lead the conference in both of those categories with 23.3 points and 11.3 rebounds.
Harangody scored 672 points during the season — the third most by a Notre Dame sophomore. He scored in double figures in 32 of 33 contests during the 2007-08 campaign, including the final 31 games of the season.
Harangody netted 20-plus points in 18 contests that included three 30-plus point performances and recorded 19 double-doubles. He scored a career-high 40 points in a loss at Louisville on February 28 and grabbed a career-high 22 boards versus Washington State in Notre Dame’s NCAA tournament second-round loss on March 22. The 22 rebounds were the second-most by an Irish player in an NCAA tournament game and the most in an NCAA contest since Tim Duncan grabbed 22 in a first round game in 1997.
Harangody reached the 1,000-point mark this season with 1,031 career points after 65 games for a 15.9 career scoring average.