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.
In a college basketball world where it now seems like only power conference teams get any respect, it’s hard to believe we’re just six seasons removed from a Brooklyn-born kid named Obi Toppin leading the Atlantic 10’s Dayton Flyers on a historic regular-season run that quickly turned into one of college basketball’s biggest “what ifs” in recent history.
Of course, as fate would have it, those Flyers never got their chance to compete for the national title after the NCAA Tournament was canceled in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a heartbreaking finish to a dream season for the Flyers that would have seen them earn an unprecedented No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but what the unfortunate ending didn’t take away from was Toppin’s dominance throughout Dayton’s season.
Toppin led the Flyers to a 29-2 overall record and an undefeated 18-0 mark in Atlantic 10 play, only losing to No. 4 Kansas and then-Pac 12 foe Colorado during the non-conference slate. Toppin reliably stuffed the stat sheet for Dayton all season, averaging career-highs of 20 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.2 steals and one block per game.
In recognition of his efforts, Toppin became the first mid-major athlete to win the Wooden Award since St. Joseph’s Jameer Nelson did so 16 years earlier in 2003-2004. Toppin nearly swept all of the other relevant National Player of the Year honors as well, only falling short to Iowa’s Luka Garza for the Sporting News National Player of the Year award.
Although Toppin’s collegiate career ended with a sudden cancellation announcement from the NCAA, the sophomore had done enough to put himself in a favorable enough position to become a top pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. He was drafted by his childhood team, the New York Knicks, eighth overall and was with the organization until he was traded to the Indiana Pacers in 2023.
Toppin’s big game demeanor was ever apparent in Game 6 of the 2025 NBA Finals, where he scored a team-high 20 points on 4-of-7 shooting from 3-point range to push the Oklahoma City Thunder to Game 7. Toppin, who was a regular on SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays for highlight reel jams during his Dayton days, also won the NBA Dunk Contest in 2022.
