Will Any1 Beat Griner - Link Stef, Bria and Kaleena on the list. Predict by mid season Breanna will be on the list
Nice to see Stef get the recognition. She belongs on that list. I agree that Breanna will easily be in the top 30, starting very early. I'm not sure Morgan will make the list, but I predict she'll be a top 30 player nationally this year. Here's my pre-season vote (in order): Griner Delle Donne Sims Hartley Diggins Ogwumike E. Williams Mosqueda-Lewis
Griner will win easily. In college, you're not around long enough for voters to get tired of voting for you (aka, the reason Michael Jordan didn't win the MVP basically every year from 1988-1998 except the two years he was out).
Apparently "mid majors" are not allowed to play this year, as there are a total of TWO, including EDD on the watch list.
List of Wade Winners UConn leads the list with 7 Award Years, followed by La Tech, Old Dominion and Texas each with three Award years. I was surprised the Lady Vols only had two years in which one of their players was awarded the Wade Trophy List of Award Winners, sorted by School and Year Won. 2012 Brittney Griner Baylor 1995 Rebecca Lobo Connecticut 1996 Jennifer Rizzotti Connecticut 2002 Sue Bird Connecticut 2003 Diana Taurasi Connecticut 2009 Maya Moore Connecticut 2010 Maya Moore Connecticut 2011 Maya Moore Connecticut 2004 Alana Beard Duke 1997 DeLisha Milton Florida 1981 Lynette Woodard Kansas 1983 LaTaunya Pollard Long Beach State 1982 Pam Kelly Louisiana Tech 1984 Janice Lawrence Louisiana Tech 1988 Teresa Weatherspoon Louisiana Tech 2005 Seimone Augustus LSU 2006 Seimone Augustus LSU 1994 Carol Ann Shudlick Minnesota 1978 Carol Blazejowski Montclair State/ 1993 Karen Jennings Nebraska 1979 Nancy Lieberman Old Dominion 1980 Nancy Lieberman Old Dominion 1998 Ticha Penicheiro Old Dominion 1992 Susan Robinson Penn State 1999 Stephanie White McCarty Purdue 2001 Jackie Stiles Southwest Missouri State 1990 Jennifer Azzi Stanford 2008 Candice Wiggins Stanford 1991 Daedra Charles Tennessee 2007 Candace Parker Tennessee 1986 Kamie Ethridge Texas 1989 Clarissa Davis Texas 2000 Edwina Brown Texas 1985 Cheryl Miller USC 1987 Shelly Pennefeather Villanova
Don't forget Alyssa Thomas. I'd put her in the Simms/Hartley/Diggins category. And Chelsea Grey is very close to being in that top group, if not firmly in there...
How the committee found a way to not give this award to Holdsclaw at least twice is pretty astounding. And how the committee decided to give the award to Edwina Brown over Catchings in 2000 is pretty incredible. I was surprised Taurasi only won the award once (especially because Maya won it three times), but she was bookended by her own teammate (Bird--who deserved it her senior year), and Beard--who was phenomenal her senior year (though it still should have gone to DT, but this isn't a gross oversight, IMO). To think that Maya won the award three times is pretty astounding, although considering that people like Taurasi, Bird, Parker, Miller only won it once, and certain players (Swoopes, Holdsclaw, Catchings) never won it at all, it seems as if the Wade is not the ultimate measure of the best player in the land.
Maya must have edged Tina her junior year. Yep, at least Holdsclaw and Catchings should have one one (or more). Chamique may have been the best player for 3 years.
There's also the Naismith & Wooden awards for POY. The Wade has extra criteria like "character" and "spirit of Margaret Wade". I thought there was also something about community service, but couldn't find any reference to that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naismith_College_Player_of_the_Year http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Wooden_Award
And Holdsclaw was my all-time favorite player until BG came along. I loved watching her play and agree that she was probably the best player for three years straight.
