Okafor Named to Wooden Award
All-American Team

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (April 2, 2003)-- University of Connecticut sophomore Emeka Okafor (Houston, TX) has been named to the 2003 John R. Wooden Award All-American Team, it was announced Wednesday by the Wooden Award committee. The ten-member team was selected by a nationwide panel of over 1,000 voters and the top five vote-getters have been invited to Los Angeles for the April 12 announcement of the John R. Wooden National Player of the Year Award.

The top five vote-getters, in alphabetical order, were Nick Collison of Kansas, T.J. Ford of Texas, Hollis Price of Oklahoma, Dwyane Wade of Marquette and David West of Xavier. Okafor is joined by Jason Gardner of Arizona, Kirk Hinrich of Kansas, Josh Howard of Wake Forest and Brandin Knight of Pittsburgh in rounding out the Wooden All-American squad.

Okafor is the fifth Husky to earn Wooden All-America status in the past ten years, joining Donyell Marshall (1994), Ray Allen (1995 & 1996), Richard Hamilton (1998 & 1999) and Caron Butler (2002).

Okafor leads the country with 4.7 blocked shots per contest this season and he is currently No. 7 in the nation in rebounding at 11.2 per contest. He averaged 15.9 points per game and led the BIG EAST Conference with 22 double-doubles. He also earned a spot on the Verizon Academic All-America First Team and was a First Team All-BIG EAST selection. He is the BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year and the BIG EAST Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

UConn finished the season with a 23-10 mark, advancing to the NCAA Sweet 16. The Huskies earned a share of the BIG EAST Regular Season Championship and advanced to the BIG EAST Tournament Championship game.