LOS ANGELES — University of Iowa All-American Caitlin Clark was named the Wooden Award National Player of the Year, which is presented annually to the most outstanding women’s basketball player who achieves tremendous on-court success, for the second straight season. The announcement was made on Tuesday by the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
Joining Clark as a finalist for the esteemed award are Cameron Brink (Stanford), Paige Bueckers (UConn), Hannah Hidalgo (Norte Dame), and JuJu Watkins (USC). All five players are invited to Los Angeles for the 48th annual presentation of the Wooden Award.
The Wooden Award Gala will honor the Men’s and Women’s Wooden Award winners and will include the presentation of the Wooden Award All-America teams in Los Angeles on Friday, April 12. Honorees were certified by their universities as meeting or exceeding the criteria of the Wooden Award.
The most dominant player in women’s college basketball recently led the Hawkeyes to their second straight National Championship and finished the season leading the nation in assists (8.9 assists per game) and in scoring (31.6 points per game). She became the first player to finish No. 1 in both categories in back-to-back seasons. Clark owns a career 3,900+ points and she recently became the first Division-I player to record 1,000+ points in back-to-back seasons. She is also the only player in NCAA DI men’s or women’s basketball history to lead her conference in scoring and assists in four consecutive seasons.
It is the first time that an Iowa women’s basketball player has won the Wooden Award in back-to-back seasons. The West Des Moines, Iowa, native helped lead the Hawkeyes to their second National Championship appearance in school history in her final season.
2023-24 AWARDS
– Wooden Award
– Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year
– Ann Meyers Drysdale Award
– Honda Sport Award
– Wade Trophy
– Associated Press National Player of the Year
– Naismith National Player of the Year
– USA Today National Player of the Year
– ESPN.com National Player of the Year
– The Athletic National Player of the Year
– Sporting News National Player of the Year
– AP, USBWA, USA Today First Team All-America
– Big Ten Player of the Year
– First Team All-Big Ten
– Big Ten Player of the Week; Nov. 13, Nov. 27, Dec. 11, Dec. 18, Jan. 2, Jan. 8, Jan. 15, Feb. 5, Feb. 19, Feb. 26, March 4.
– WBCA National Player of the Week; Nov. 14, Nov. 28, Jan. 3, Jan. 9, Jan. 16, Jan. 31, Feb. 6, Feb. 20.
– AP National Player of the Week; Nov. 14, Jan. 9, Feb. 20.