Mack Named to Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 List

INDIANAPOLIS -- Butler University junior Shelvin Mack was named to the Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 list, the Los Angeles Athletic Club announced this afternoon.  Mack, who earned First Team All-Horizon League honors in 2009-10, was the lone Horizon League representative on this year's list.

Mack, who averaged 13.9 ppg in the regular season last year before averaging 15.3 during Butler's run to the Final Four, is the first Horizon League men's basketball player to be on the preseason list since A.J. Graves (Butler) represented the Horizon League in 2007-08.

Entering the 2010-11 season, Mack sits just 101 points from breaking the 1,000-point barrier in his career.

The Lexington, Ky.-native finished in double figures 30 times in 2009-10, helping lead Butler to a 33-5 record and an appearance in the national championship game, where he scored 12 points.  

In just two seasons with the Bulldogs, Mack is already the school's NCAA Tournament scoring leader, posting 110 points in seven tournament games, an average of 15.7 per game.

In 2009-10, Butler completed the Horizon League's first 18-0 regular season and just the fourth unblemished record in the league's 31 years.

Transfers, freshmen and medical redshirts are not eligible for the preseason list. These players and others who excel throughout the season will be evaluated and considered for December’s Midseason list and the official voting ballot released in March. The National Ballot consists of approximately 20 top players who have proven to their universities that they are also making progress toward graduation and maintaining at least a cumulative 2.0 GPA.  The Wooden Award All-American Team will be announced the week of the “Elite Eight” round during the NCAA Tournament.

Eleven conferences are represented on the Wooden Award Preseason List.

The 35th annual Wooden Award ceremony, which will include the announcement of the Men’s and Women’s Wooden Award winners, a special tribute to Coach Wooden and Wooden Award founder Duke Llewellyn, and the presentation of the Wooden Award All American Teams and the Legends of Coaching Award, will take place the weekend of April 8-10, 2011.