Iowa's Caitlin Clark headlines ballot for 2024 John R. Wooden Award
Before leading her team to Iowa's third straight Big Ten championship, Caitlin Clark was named to the 15-player national ballot for the John R. Wooden Award on Sunday.
Clark, who was also recently named Big Ten Player of the Year for the third time, headlines the list alongside four other newly tabbed conference players of the year: Stanford's Cameron Brink (Pac-12), UConn's Paige Bueckers (Big East), Virginia Tech's Elizabeth Kitley (ACC) and LSU's Angel Reese (SEC).
Also making the list were Pac-12 Freshman of the Year JuJu Watkins of USC and ACC Tournament MVP Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame.
Rounding out the top-15 players were Virginia Tech's Georgia Amoore, South Carolina's Kamilla Cardoso, UConn's Aaliyah Edwards, Indiana's Mackenzie Holmes, Stanford's Kiki Iriafen, Kansas State's Ayoka Lee, LSU's Aneesah Morrow, and Utah's Alissa Pili.
Three schools — LSU, Stanford and Virginia Tech — have multiple players on the Wooden Award National Ballot, while the Pac-12 leads all conferences with four selections, followed by the ACC and the SEC (three), the Big East and the Big Ten (two) and the Big 12 (one).
Each year, the award is given to the most outstanding player in women's college basketball. Bueckers took home the award in 2021 while NCAA all-time leading scorer Clark was given the award the previous two years.
Voters will next release a 10-player All-America team before the Wooden Award winner is announced later in the spring.
Each conference is in the process of wrapping up its end-of-season tournaments before the NCAA Division I Selection Show takes place next week, on March 17th.
