Gonzaga’s Ryan Nembhard named to Wooden Award midseason watch list

On By Littum

Gonzaga men’s basketball senior Ryan Nembhard was among the 25 players named to the 2025 Wooden Award midseason watchlist, the Los Angeles Athletic Club announced Tuesday.

Nembhard has made a strong case to take home serious hardware at the end of the season through his brilliant play to start the 2024-2025 campaign. Through 16 games, he is no. 1 in the nation with 153 assists, becoming the first Division-I player to reach 100 assists and the fastest to 100 assists in a season in program history. Nembhard’s 4.03 assist-to-turnover ratio is fifth best in the country.

Nembhard has reached double figures in assists on nine different occasions this season, including dishing out a career-high 14 dimes in Gonzaga’s 89-73 win over Indiana in the Battle 4 Atlantis event. That set a tournament record as well as his 39 assists over the three-day event, the most by an individual player in that span.

Nembhard is putting up 11.6 points, 9.6 assists and 3.5 rebounds while adding 1.8 steals per game. match. He is shooting 42.9% from the field, 37.5% from 3-point range and 84% from the free throw line. Nembhard is also second in the West Coast Conference in minutes per game (35.7).

“This guy is the mailman,” ESPN college basketball analyst and former coach Seth Greenberg said of Nembhard. “He just delivers. He delivers every single time down the floor. You’re talking about a guy who makes the game easier for others.”

Nembhard was placed on the 50-player preseason watch list on November 7. He is also in contention for the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year award and the Naismith Trophy. Players not selected to the mid-season roster remain eligible for inclusion on the late-season Wooden Award roster.

2024-25 Wooden Award Midseason Top 25

Airy “Ace” Bailey, Rutgers
Johnny Broome, Auburn
Walter Clayton Jr., Florida
RJ Davis, North Carolina
Hunter Dickinson, Kansas
Eric Dixon, Villanova
Jeremiah Fears, Oklahoma
Cooper Flagg, Duke
Keshon Gilbert, Iowa State
PJ Haggerty, Memphis
Dylan Harper, Rutgers
Josh Hubbard, Mississippi State
Kasparas Jakučionis, Illinois
Tre Johnson, Texas
Kam Jones, Marquette
Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton
Alex Karaban, UConn
Chaz Lanier, Tennessee
Ryan Nembhard, Gonzaga
Derik Queen, Maryland
Maxime Raynaud, Stanford
Mark Sears, Alabama
Braden Smith, Purdue
Wade Taylor IV, Texas A&M
Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee