ST. LOUIS (USBWA) The U.S. Basketball Writers Association has selected 20 outstanding players for its 2013 Ann Meyers Drysdale Award Midseason Watch List. Members of the association's board of directors chose the players to be included on the list as contenders for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award.
The award is to be presented to the women's national player of the year by its namesake at the USBWA women's awards press conference on April 7 in the interview room of the New Orleans Arena, 3:30 p.m. local time prior to the start of the NCAA Women's Final Four semifinals, which is a change from the morning breakfast in past seasons.
The coach of the year award will be presented as will the Pat Summitt Most Courgeaous Award. New Marquette women's assistant coach Tyler Summitt, the son of the former Hall of Fame Tennessee coach, will be one of the presenters of the award given to his mother a year ago for her courageous battle against early onset dementia.
Teammates from Connecticut, Baylor, Duke, Penn State, and Maryland headline the list that includes five Big East players. Connecticut's Stefanie Dolson, Kaleena Moaqueda-Lewis and Kelly Faris are joined by sister Big East standouts Kayla Alexander of Syracuse and Skylar Diggins of Notre Dame. The pair of Baylor stars are Brittney Griner and Odyssey Sims, while the Lady Lion guard tandem of Maggie Lucas and Alex Bentley are joined by Blue Devils teammates Chelsea Gray and Elizabeth Williams and Terrapin teammates Alyssa Thomas and Tianna Hawkins.
Also named are Delaware star Elena Delle Donne of the Colonial Athletic Association, Princeton star Niveen Rasheed of the Ivy League, along with Big 12 standout Angel Goodrich of Kansas, Texas A&M star Kelsey Bone and Kentucky star A'dia Matthies of the Southeastern Conference. The Pac-12 is represented by Stanford's Chiney Ogwumike and California's Gennifer Brandon.
Five Ann Meyers Drysdale National Players of the Week from this season are featured: Stanford's Ogwumike, Connecticut's Dolson, Texas A&M's Bone, Penn State's Lucas, and Baylor's Griner. One Canadian native was chosen in Syracuse's Alexander.
Overall, the list by class has nine seniors, nine juniors and two sophomores.
Following is the complete watch list.
While these standout players are the leading contenders to be named to the USBWA's women's All-America team and as finalists for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award, all Division I women's players remain eligible for postseason honors from the USBWA. Voting for both the women's All-America team and Ann Meyers Drysdale Award are done directly by the membership with the All-America team is to be announced in late March.
All credentialed media for the Women's Final Four are invited to the awards press conference but others who have interest in attending should e-mail Mel Greenberg at poll416@gmail.com to be included on a supplementary list that will be used to avoid complications in the arena in New Orleans.
The U.S. Basketball Writers Association was formed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. With some 900 members worldwide, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball. It has selected an All-America team since the 1956-57 season. For more information on the USBWA and its award programs, contact executive director Joe Mitch at 314-795-6821.