The John R. Wooden Award will celebrate it’s 50th anniversary this season. Leading up to the award ceremony on April 10, 2026, The Sporting Tribune in partnership with the Wooden Award and the Los Angeles Athletic Club will highlight past winners of the Wooden Award and the Legends of Coaching Award.
Before Jalen Brunson became an All-NBA player with the Knicks and the face of basketball’s Mecca, he solidified himself as one of college basketball’s all-time greats with a three-year career at Villanova that saw him win a pair of national titles in 2016 and 2018 before being crowned the ‘18 Wooden Award winner to end his storybook run with the Wildcats.
As a freshman on the 2015-16 National Championship team, Brunson was already an integral piece. He earned implicit trust as Jay Wright’s point guard despite his youth and was a stabilizing force behind Villanova’s run that March after averaging 9.6 points and 2.5 assists in 40 appearances (39 starts) for the Wildcats.
As a sophomore, Brunson took the first major leap of his college career, boosting his scoring average to 14.7 points with a career-high 54.1 percent shooting clip. Villanova cruised to Big East regular season and tournament titles and earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, but an upset loss to No. 8 seed Wisconsin in the Round of 32 ended the Wildcats’ repeat bid.
In hindsight, it’s possible that the loss to Wisconsin was the best thing for Brunson and Villanova heading into 2018. Clearly motivated by the embarrassment of falling short in 2017, Brunson wasted no time establishing himself as the best player in the country as a junior. The high-IQ scoring machine led Villanova to a 13-0 start, eventually finishing the regular season 27-4 before winning a second straight Big East tournament.
Entering the 2018 NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed again, Brunson and Villanova were leaving nothing to chance this time around. The future NBA All-Star anchored the most dominant NCAA Tournament in the last quarter century, beating opponents by an average of over 17 points per game en route to Villanova’s second national championship in three seasons.
Despite his dominance in college, Brunson was largely looked over in the 2018 NBA Draft until he was selected by the Dallas Mavericks with the 33rd overall pick. His NBA career really began blossoming after his trade to New York in 2022, where he’s now been named a three-time All-Star, two-time second team All-NBA, and won the NBA Cup and NBA Cup MVP.
