Wooden Award Winner 2015: Frank Kaminsky Receives Coveted Honor

Frank Kaminsky and the Wisconsin Badgers didn't end their season in ideal fashion, but the senior big man will leave college basketball on a high note after winning the prestigious John R. Wooden Award Friday.

The Wooden Award is given to the most outstanding player in college basketball, and Kaminsky proved to be just that in 2014-15, as announced on the award's official website.

Kaminsky beat out some stiff competition for every award, and the Wooden was no exception. The other four finalists were Duke center Jahlil Okafor, Kentucky forward Willie Cauley-Stein, Notre Dame guard Jerian Grant and Ohio State guard D'Angelo Russell.

All of them enjoyed fine campaigns, but none of them were able to equal the overall impact that Kaminsky made on Wisconsin and college basketball as a whole.

Kaminsky led the Badgers all the way to the national championship game before ultimately falling to Duke. Wisconsin memorably ended Kentucky's undefeated season in the Final Four, and Kaminsky was the driving force behind it.

He ended the season with averages of nearly 19 points and eight rebounds per game, while shooting almost 55 percent from the field and 42 percent from long range.

The 7-footer was so dominant that ESPN.com's Andy Katz questioned the need for so many awards since Kaminsky ended up monopolizing them:

Winning award after award may seem like old hat for some, but Kaminsky scratched and clawed his way to this point. He wasn't a highly touted recruit entering college, and he didn't even average two points per contest as a freshman.

Because of that, Kaminsky will undoubtedly be gracious when he accepts the honor Friday night, just like he was when he won the Associated Press Player of the Year Award, per Jim Polzin of the Wisconsin State Journal.

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It means a lot. It's been a long journey. It wasn't easy at times, but I just believed in the process and believed in myself and had a lot of people who also believed in me. They really pushed me. My teammates really helped me by making me a better player every day in practice. I've just got to be thankful to all the people who helped me.

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One can only assume that Kaminsky would willingly trade in all the hardware in exchange for a national title, but Wisconsin falling just short doesn't change what the Lisle, Illinois, native accomplished.

He was the most complete and dominant player in college basketball this past season, and he carried himself respectably as well.

Kaminsky will now move toward what promises to be a productive NBA career, but regardless of what happens at the next level, his legacy has been cemented as a Wooden Award winner.

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