The Wooden Award Midseason Top 25 was annoucned on Wednesday.

Creighton's Doug McDermott and Oklahoma State's Marcus Smart might be the frontrunners, but Arizona's Nick Johnson, Duke's Jabari Parker, Iowa State's DeAndre Kane, Florida's Casey Prather and Syracuse's Tyler Ennis are viable candidates.

Joel Embiid is the most glaring omission from the list.

Victor Oladipo was not on the midseason list last season and became a finalist.

Joel Embiid has emerged as one of the top freshmen in college basketball.

Embiid has only been playing basketball for a few years, but has remarkable instincts for the game.

Embiid has also been researching the college tenures of big men such as Hakeem Olajuwon, Tim Duncan and Shaquille O'Neal. The common denominator with those three legendary bigs is that they each spent at least two seasons in college.

"I was curious because I want to be great, I want to be the best at my position one day," said Embiid. "I'm trying to learn everything and what other people did. All of the great big men went to college at least two or three years. I think it's a big factor. I don't know if it will always work, but I think it's the best choice."

"He's the best," Bill Self said. "He wants to know everything. He's so naïve, in a very innocent way. Like certain guys can be naïve to the ways of the world, but he's naïve about everything -- what to eat, everything."