Did you know there are actually multiple NCAA Player of the Year Awards?
Of course, there are the big ones: the Naismith Women's College Player of the Year, the USBWA Women's National Player of the Year. There's also the Associated Press Women's College Player of the Year, and other outlets will also vote on their own Player of the Year awards. Usually, unless there is a really close race going on, each of these awards go to the same person. When we have the discussion about "who is the player of the year?" it's more about the collective of these awards and not one in particular. Though, the big ones certainly hold more weight.
The past five National Player of the Year awards have gone to Caitlin Clark (Iowa, back to back), Aliyah Boston (South Carolina), Paige Bueckers (UConn) and Sabrina Ionescu (Oregon). Cheryl Miller (USC) and Breanna Stewart (UConn) are the only two players to win the award three times. Clarissa Davis (Texas), Dawn Staley (Virginia), Chamique Holdsclaw (Tennessee), Diana Taurasi (UConn), Seimone Augustus (LSU), Maya Moore (UConn), Brittney Griner (Baylor) and Caitlin Clark (Iowa) have all won the award twice.
This year, however, it seems like there will be a new National Player of the Year, and by early reports, it seems like Juju Watkins may end up being the pick. The Athletic ($) announced Monday that Watkins had won their Player of the Year award. While the other institutions will not start rolling out their award announcements until later in the post-season, Watkins is slowly raising above other candidates.
Juju Watkins takes early women's college basketball Player of the Year
A few weeks ago, we had discussed that the top three players would likely be Watkins, Hannah Hidalgo, and Lauren Betts. All three are putting up the numbers to warrant serious consideration - in the regular season, Watkins averaged 24.4 points per game, Hidalgo 24.2 and Betts 19.7. They also all play excellent defense, are efficient shooters and have led their teams to big wins.
So what other factors may go into play as voters make their decisions? First off, Watkins and USC beat Betts and UCLA twice in the last two weeks to clinch the Big 10 regular season championship. In the first game, Watkins scored 38 points, 11 rebounds, 8 blocks, 6 assists and 1 steal. In the second game, she scored 30 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 steals. Those were UCLA's only two losses of the season. In this case, Watkins gets the edge over Betts.
Notre Dame won the only game this season against USC, and both Watkins and Hidalgo scored 24 points in that game. Yet, Notre Dame has also lost two games in the last two weeks and has double the amount of total losses on the season to USC, four to two. When it comes to average stats on the season, Watkins has 24.4 points per game to Hidalgo's 24.2. The two also flip back and forth down the statistics board as well.
Maybe this is one of those years that it's too close for one player to take it all. Perhaps recency bias comes into play — Watkins has had two major performances recently against a top-ranked team, while Notre Dame has suffered half their season's losses in that same time frame.
Another important note is that Watkins won The Athletic's award unanimously. Every single vote went to her, so is it really as close as it feels?