Wake Forest Athletics
Two Demon Deacons On Wooden's Preseason List
8/19/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Aug. 19, 2000
LOS ANGELES - Senior guard Robert O'Kelley and junior forward Darius Songaila, the top two scorers on a Wake Forest team that finished the 2000 season on a strong note by winning the NIT, were both named to the preseason list of 50 candidates for the John R. Wooden Award.
The 2001 Wooden Award, presented to college basketball's top player, and All-American team presentation will be held at The Los Angeles Athletic Club on Friday, April 6, 2001 at 4:00 p.m. PST / 7:00 p.m. EST and will be televised nationally on FOX Sports Net.
Songaila, a 6-9 rising junior, led the Deacons in scoring (13.7 points per game) last season wile shooting 51.1 percent from the field and 83.5 percent from the free throw line. Songaila's late-season surge last season helped him earn third team All-ACC honors.
O'Kelley, a 6-1 rising senior, averaged 13.0 points per game last season while nailing a team-best 67 three-point field goals and dishing out a team-high 88 assists.
Both Songaila and O'Kelley are on track to leave Wake Forest as two of the most prolific scorers in school history. O'Kelley ranks 14th in Wake Forest history with 1,508 points. Songaila enters just his third season with 856 career points.
Both players are currently out of the country. Songaila continues in his attempt to make Lithuania's Olympic basketball team and O'Kelley is playing for the ESPN-NIT All-Stars on a tour of Europe.
Three of the last four Wooden Award winners have come from the ACC including Wake Forest's Tim Duncan in 1997, North Carolina's Antawn Jamison in 1998 and Duke's Elton Brand in 1999. Cincinnati's Kenyon Martin won the award last season.
