The Wooden Award honors the “most outstanding” man and woman in college basketball every year. The 2022-23 season finalists were announced Saturday on ESPN. Brandon Miller wasn’t among the 15 selected.

Alabama’s star forward leads the Southeastern Conference and all freshmen in the county in points per game (19.6). He has a claim to one of the greatest seasons in Crimson Tide history, becoming the fastest freshman to 500 points. He’s averaging 8.0 rebounds a game with a 46.2% field-goal rate and 41.7% clip from 3-point range.

But off the court, Miller has been a subject of much controversy dating back to the Jan. 15 shooting on the Tuscaloosa strip. On Feb. 21, police investigators announced Miller’s involvement as he delivered the gun used to shoot Jamea Jonae Harris, 23. Former player Darius Miles was arrested along with Michael Davis. Miller and Jaden Bradley, who was also there, were cleared of wrongdoing by police and the UA administration.

The Wooden Award’s website lists that all finalists “have been certified by their university to meet or exceed the qualifications for the Wooden Award as set forth by Coach Wooden when the Award was established. The qualifications include: candidates must exhibit strength of character, both on and off the court; … candidates must contribute to team effort; candidates must excel in both offense and defense; and candidates should be considered on their performance over the course of the entire season.”

The other finalists included North Carolina’s Armando Bacot, Detroit Mercy’s Antoine Davis, Purdue’s Zach Edey, Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis, UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kansas State’s Keyontae Johnson, TCU’s Mike Miles Jr., Iowa’s Kris Murray, Penn State’s Jalen Pickett, Houston’s Marcus Sasser, Gonzaga’s Drew Timme, Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe (who won the award last year), Arizona’s Azuolas Tubelis, Kansas’ Jalen Wilson and Miami’s Isaiah Wong.

Amid a flurry of public outcry, the Tide was entrenched in its support of Miller. He followed up with 41 points and a game-winner at South Carolina. He then scored 24 against Arkansas, another close Alabama victory. The Southeastern Conference didn’t pick Miller as one of its two weekly honorees, which Nate Oats addressed before the Tide clinched the SEC regular-season title against Auburn.

“That’s a really good question,” Oats said when asked if he thought Miller’s situation was going to impact award voting. “Obviously, he had a great week. We’re proud of the week he had. He was able to focus a lot. The two guys that got the awards, Oscar had a great week too. … Our team hasn’t played as well maybe as we needed to. (Arkansas guard Nick Smith) coming off injury and played well. Look, here’s the deal, in our league in the SEC, they got to make tough decisions every week. There was great, great players who won the award. Brandon’s had a good week, I’m sure he’ll get awards moving forward. We’ll address that as it comes up. I don’t know the answer to the second part of that.”

The U.S. Basketball Writers Association included Miller on its watchlist for the Oscar Robertson Trophy on Thursday and he was the lone freshman included. The Naismith Award will release its finalists on March 9th.

RELATED: Alabama’s Brandon Miller debuts new pregame intro after pat-down outcry

Joseph Goodman: Can’t ignore nightmares amid Alabama’s dream season

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].