Rick Pitino shreds Wooden Award Watch List after Zuby Ejiofor's omission

Rick Pitino did not take very kindly to the recent publication of the Wooden Award Midseason Top 20 list after it did not include St. John’s basketball superstar Zuby Ejiofor.

“How Zuby is not on the Wooden list is a complete and utter mistake,” Pitino tweeted on Tuesday night. “He should be a contender for player of the year. I'm totally bewildered!!!”

Ejiofor leads St. John’s in every statistical category this season – points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks – and has become the clear favorite to win the Big Easy Player of the Year Award.

In a standalone national television game against No. 3 UConn, he went for 21 points, ten rebounds, seven assists, three blocks, and two steals while following up that showing with 25 points, seven rebounds, five assists, a block, and two steals in an overtime win over Xavier.

No Big East players were named to the watch list.

Arkansas’ Darius Acuff Jr., Texas Tech’s Christian Anderson and JT Toppin, Duke’s Cameron Boozer, Arizona’s Jaden Bradley, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, Michigan State’s Jeremy Fears Jr., Houston’s Kingston Flemings, Kansas State’s P.J. Haggerty, Florida’s Thomas Haugh, Gonzags’a Graham Ike, Iowa State’s Joshua Jefferson, Michigan’s Yaxel Leneborg, Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, Alabama’s Labaron Philon Jr., Purdue’s Braden Smith, Iowa’s Bennet Stirtz, Vanderbilt's Tyler Tanner, Illinois’ Keaton Wagler, and North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson made the list of 20 players.

The good news for Zuby Ejiofor is that you can still win the Wooden Award even if you were not named to the midseason watch list, although it’s very unlikely.

A St. John’s player has not won the Wooden Award since the program went back-to-back with Chris Mullin and Walter Berry in the 1985-86 seasons.

Ejiofor was named to the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar mid-season Top 10 watch list, an award given to the nation’s best center at the end of the season.