UNC'S MAY IN RUNNING FOR WOODEN AWARD.

Byline: Jill Painter Staff Writer

North Carolina's Sean May has an NCAA title. He will try to pad his resume today with the John R. Wooden Award.

May is one of five finalists for the award, given to the country's top male and female basketball players. The other men'sfinalists are Utah's Andrew Bogut, Illinois' Dee Brown, Duke's J.J. Redick and Wayne Simien of Kansas.

The women's finalists are: LSU's Seimone Augustus, Duke's Monique Currie, Ohio State's Jessica Davenport, Minnesota's Janel McCarville and Kendra Wecker of Kansas State.

The presentation will take place at 10 a.m. at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. The program will be shown live on KCBS-TV Channel 2.

A panel of 1,000 members of the media and college experts voted.

May, a center, led the Tar Heels with 17.1 points and 10.9 rebounds per game. Bogut, an Australian, led the Utes to the Sweet 16. He also led the Mountain West Conference in scoring at 20.4 points per game and added 12.2 rebounds per game.

Redick, one of the nation's best pure shooters, shot 40.3 percent from 3- point range. He led the Blue Devils in scoring at 21.8 points per game and was one of the country's best free-throw shooters at 94 percent.

Brown was the Big Ten player of the year and led the Illini to the championship game, which they lost to May's Tar Heels. Simien averaged a double-double with 20.8 points and 10.3 rebounds.

``All of these finalists deserve to be recognized for their extraordinary level of play throughout the season,'' said Richard Llewellyn, chairman of the Wooden Award. ``We look forward to crowning one of these five players the 2005 Wooden Award winner.''

Also, Connecticut's Jim Calhoun will be presented with the Legends of Coaching Award.

Jill Painter, [phone]

jill.painter(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

North Carolina's Sean May celebrates an NCAA title win on Monday. Today, he's a finalist for the John R. Wooden Award.

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

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AWARD