Ben Simmons has reportedly not met the credentials by LSU to be eligible for the Wooden Award.
True freshman forward for the LSU Tiger Ben Simmons may be the best NBA prospect in nine years, but the certain one-and-done freshman will not be eligible to win the Wooden Award this spring by not meeting the academic standards of Louisiana State University, per a source close to ESPN.
Tigers head coach Johnny Jones told ESPN, “From what I was told, he didn’t meet all of the requirements. He wasn’t certified by the school to be on the ballot.”
Simmons was on the Wooden Award Watch List as late as February 10th in a group of 20 award hopefuls. Of all the credentials required to be eligible for the Wooden Award, it seems obvious that Simmons failed to achieve a 2.0 GPA in his first semester at LSU.
ESPN’s Jeff Goodman reminds us that former one-and-done and NCAA National Champion Carmelo Anthony then of Syracuse was too ineligible to win the Wooden Award because he achieved only a 1.8 GPA during his first semester at Syracuse University in 2002-03.
Simmons reportedly reacted to the news about his ineligibility to win the Wooden Award by telling his LSU assistant coach and godfather David Patrick, “All I care about is winning.”
Well, Simmons’ LSU squad is likely not going to make the NCAA Tournament in his lone season in Baton Rouge unless the Tigers run the table in the SEC Tournament.
While Simmons is certainly going No. 1 in the 2016 NBA Draft later this summer, this doesn’t look good for LSU, as their best player since Shaquille O’Neal completely downplayed the notion of being a student athlete. O’Neal would go on to graduate from LSU and holds several degrees as The Great Aristotle. Simmons is clearly full-steam ahead to playing in the NBA next season.