NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt junior guard Scotty Pippen Jr. was named to the John R. Wooden Award preseason top 50 watch list Tuesday on ESPN’s SportsCenter and ESPN.com.
Chosen by a preseason poll of national college basketball experts, the list is comprised of 50 student-athletes who are the early front-runners for the most prestigious honors in college basketball, the Wooden Award All-American Team and Most Outstanding Player Award.
Pippen was named the preseason SEC Player of the Year and first-team all-conference by a select panel of both SEC and national media members on Oct. 19, was also chosen as preseason first-team all-SEC by the conference coaches.
Pippen was also one of just 20 student-athletes named to the preseason Bob Cousy Award watch list and was also on the NABC Player of the Year preseason watch list.
Pippen has played in 54 games and made 53 starts in his first two seasons for the Commodores. He was an NABC First-Team All-District pick and an All-SEC selection by The Associated Press in 2020-21 when he set a school record for a sophomore with 20.8 points per game—that also ranked as the seventh-highest scoring season in program history and highest since 1999-2000.
A native of Los Angeles, Pippen also posted the ninth-most assists per game in Vandy history last season and ranked second in the SEC with 4.9 per contest. He shared the ball at a record-rate as the first Commodore in five years with 5+ assists in four straight games and is the first Commodore since 2000 with eight or more assists in back-to-back games.
Pippen ranked third in the SEC and ninth nationally with 142 made free throws, and second in the SEC with 1.77 steals per game. He shot 42.8 percent from the field overall, 35.8 percent from 3-point range and 85 percent from the free throw line (second in SEC) and led the team in scoring 13 times.
He set an SEC Tournament record for most made free throws without a miss in a single tournament (25-for-25 in two games).