LOS ANGELES — Iowa State senior Tamin Lipsey and Iowa senior Bennett Stirtz have both been named to the preseason watch list for the John R. Wooden Award.

Selected by a preseason poll of national college basketball experts, the Wooden Award Watch List comprises 50 student-athletes who are frontrunners for the most prestigious honors in college basketball — the Wooden Award All-American Team and the Wooden Award Most Outstanding Player.

Lipsey is the first player in Big 12 Conference history to tally 75 points, 20 assists and 15 steals through the first four games of a season. To this point, Lipsey is averaging 19 points, 5.2 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game for the Cyclones, who are off to a 4-0 start.

Last season, Lipsey was a semifinalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Award. He earned all-Big 12 honors for the second-straight season and was also named to the Big 12 All-Defensive Team.

The Wooden Award Watch List is the fourth preseason Player of the Year preseason nod for Stirtz as he was also named to the NABC Watch List, Naismith Trophy Watch List and Oscar Robertson Trophy Watch List.

In three games this season, Stirtz is leading Iowa in averaging 21.3 points per game to go along with 5.3 assists and 2.7 steals in 38.5 minutes per game — second-most nationally. He is shooting 58.8 percent from the floor, 46.2 percent from 3-point range and 90 percent from the foul stripe.