UConn seniors Katie Lou Samuelson and Napheesa Collier were named to the 10-player WBCA Coaches All-America Team (Charlotte Lao/Daily Campus).
After a day full of media junkets and practices for the teams in the NCAA Division I Women’s Final Four, the afternoon ended with the presentation of some of the biggest awards in women’s college basketball.
UConn seniors Katie Lou Samuelson and Napheesa Collier were named to the 10-player WBCA Coaches All-America Team. The team was rounded out with Kalani Brown from Baylor, Asia Durr from Louisville, Megan Gustafson from Iowa, Sabrina Ionescu from Orgeon, Bridget Carleton from Iowa State, Teaira McCowan from Mississippi State, Arike Ogunbowale from Notre Dame and Alanna Smith from Stanford.
Collier was also named the recipient of the Katrina McClain Award which is given to the top power forward in the country and is one of the five Naismith starting five awards. Last season’s award went to Ruthy Hebard from Oregon, who will also be competing in the Final Four this weekend with the Ducks.
The Nancy Lieberman Award for the nation’s top point guard was presented to Ionescu. UConn junior Crystal Dangerfield was one of the five finalists for the award.
The Ann Meyers Drysdale Award was presented to Durr and the Cheryl Miller Award was presented to Carleton. The Lisa Leslie Award for the best center in the nation was presented to Gustafson.
Other awards presented on Thursday included the AP Women’s College Basketball Player of the Year as well as the Wade Trophy winner.
Gustafson was awarded the AP Player of the Year Award after she led the Hawkeyes to their first Elite Eight since 1993. The past two seasons Gustafson led the country in scoring and posted over 1,000 points this past season alone.
The Wade Trophy was awarded to Ionescu who was the PAC-12 Player of the Year and broke the all-time career triple double record, for men’s or women’s basketball, earlier this season.
The AP Coach of the Year Award was presented to Baylor’s Kim Mulkey. This was Mulkey’s second time winning the award with the last time being when the Lady Bears won the National Championship in 2012. She received 17 of the 28 votes for this year’s award. Her squad enters the Final Four as the No. 1 overall seed and will face second-seeded Oregon tomorrow at 7 p.m.
Mariana Dominguez is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at mariana.dominguez@uconn.edu.
