INDIANAPOLIS (USBWA) – In a season that’s flown by – it’s the last day for our weekly awards – as attention turns to getting ready for the national voting honors from the membership.
However, it would be nice to keep going, considering that in this week’s Power Four tournaments it will be poll ball with 23 of 25 teams in Monday’s Associated Press women’s rankings chasing four titles and their associated NCAA automatic bids.
The other two – Connecticut and Creighton – are in the Big East, which finishes Monday, though there’s a lot of excitement ahead next week among the remaining mid-major conferences.
Following that comes Selection Sunday to set the NCAA 68-team path to Tampa, Fla., in what appears to be a wide open fight for the national title.
The USBWA women’s awards, organized under Mel Greenberg, the USBWA Vice President for women’s basketball, are chosen from weekly conference honors as well as at-large additions. Nominations are welcome as each seven-day period rolls along to make sure no one is inadvertently overlooked.
There is no restriction within a week on the number of national honors received within a conference, especially the way realignment has affected membership size.
For the final period through Sunday, March 2, the five Ann Meyers Drysdale national women’s honorees of the week are Iowa State center Audi Crooks; South Carolina forward Chloe Kitts; West Virginia guard JJ Quinerly; Maryland guard Shyanne Sellers; USC guard JuJu Watkins. The Tamika Catchings National Freshman of the Week is Duke forward Toby Fournier and and the National Team of the Week is Columbia.
Since the 1987-88 season, the USBWA has named a women’s National Player of the Year. For the 2012-13 season, the national and weekly player award became named for Hall of Famer and former UCLA All-American Ann Meyers Drysdale while the national and weekly freshman award is being given in the name of former Tennessee all-American Tamika Catchings, which was applied at the start of the 2019-20 season.
At the conclusion of the regular season, the USBWA will name candidates for both individual awards, which is voted on by the entire membership of the USBWA.
The winners of the 2025 Ann Meyers Drysdale National Player of the Year and Tamika Catchings National Freshman of the Year will be announced and presented at the USBWA’s annual awards event on site at the NCAA Women's Final Four in Tampa.
Crooks, a 6-3 sophomore center from Algona, Iowa, was her own storm for the Cyclones of Iowa State (21-10, 12-6) in the Big 12, giving the team the ranked win they’ve been seeking all season, an 85-63 upset of then-No. 14 Kansas State with a career-high 36 points, shooting 14-18 from the field and 8-11 from the line with 10 rebounds in Ames. Earlier in the week, she scored 29 points for a two-game average if 32.5 points in a 98-73 win over UCF in Orlando, Fla., shooting 9-12 from the field and 11-13 from the line with eight boards. “They had no answer for her, few teams do,” Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said of her after the win over Kansas State. She leads the team with a 22.6 scoring average.
South Carolina fans might want us to pick the coin that flipped to make the now-No. 5 Gamecocks (27-3, 15-1) the No. 1 seed in this week’s Southeastern Conference Tournament in Greenville, S.C., breaking a tie with national No. 1 Texas, but playing a part to get Dawn Staley’s group to the first place deadlock was Kitts, a 6-2 junior forward from Oviedo, Fla., who early in the week had16 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists for a 75-59 win over Ole Miss in Oxford. It’s the program’s first triple-double since now-WNBA star Aaliyah Boston got one against Georgia on Jan. 21, 2021, and the second against a conference opponent. She also had a career-high four steals. Later against then-No. 15 Kentucky in a 78-66 win at home she had 12 points and 10 rebounds. On Monday, she was named a SEC Co-Player of the Week.
Quinerly, a 5-8 senior guard from Norfolk, Va., who on Monday shared Big 12 honors with Iowa State’s Crooks, scored 31 points with seven rebounds and seven assists in the finale at Cincinnati for the No. 16 Mountaineers (23-6, 13-5), who collected 13 regular-season conference wins for the third time in 13 seasons in the league. Earlier in the last home game on senior night in Morgantown in a win over Utah, she tied a school record with 38 points. “The ball kept going in. At some point, I just kept shooting it, but I’m a little sad this might be my last game here (in Morgantown Arena)," she said. Quinerly leads the team with a 20.5 average and is second with 87 steals.
Sellers, a 6-2 senior guard from Aurora, Ohio, helped give now-No. 15 Maryland (23-6, 13-5) a 93-90 upset of then-No. 12 Ohio State at home with 21 points, eight assists, and two steals, the game won on VCU transfer Sarah Te-Biasu’s shot at the buzzer in overtime giving veteran coach Brenda Freese her 99th ranked win with the Terrapins, who are seeded fourth in this week’s Big Ten tourney in Indianapolis. Earlier, in a 74-60 win at Indiana in Bloomington, Sellers, who was last season’s Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, scored 25 points with two assists. She’s the only player in program history to have reached 1,500 points, 500 rebounds, and 500 assists.
Watkins, a 6-2 sophomore guard from Los Angeles, is picking up her eighth USBWA weekly award and overall her USBWA multi honors are exceeded only by former Iowa star Caitlin Clark and Connecticut graduate senior Paige Bueckers. Watkins, who earned her seventh Big Ten honor Monday, is currently second in the nation in scoring with a 24.4 average. In the second power meeting, this time at then-No. 2 UCLA across town Saturday night, she scored 30 points and led the Trojans (26-2, 17-1) to an 80-67 win over the Bruins, claiming the Big Ten title and No. 1 seed after a few days earlier UCLA was the overall top seed in the second NCAA 16-team reveal. On Monday, USC in the AP women’s poll jumped to No. 2 behind Texas, the highest ranking in 39 years back to the end of the Cheryl Miller era and their conference title in their first year in the league is also their first in 31 seasons since winning the then-Pac-10 back in 1994. Watkins has twenty 30-point games exceeded in the program only by Miller’s 25. It’s the first sweep of the Bruins in 11 seasons and the last 26-2 start was 1982-83 when Miller was a freshman.
Fournier, a 6-2 freshman forward from Toronto, Ontario, led then-No. 16 Duke (23-7, 14-4) to a 71-57 win at then-No. 24 Florida State Sunday, scoring 20 of her career-high 28 points in the second half, shooting 11-15 from the field, 6-8 from the line, with six rebounds. Earlier, in an upset of then-No. 8 North Carolina, she had 19 points, 10 boards, six on the offensive glass with two blocks and on Monday picked up her sixth ACC Rookie of the Week honor to go with her third USBWA award. She leads the team with a 14.1 scoring average. The Blue Devils will be the third seed in the ACC Tournament this week in Greensboro, N.C.
Columbia (21-5, 12-1) had quite the weekend with a two-game sweep claiming the Lions’ minimal third straight share of the Ivy League regular-season title and No. 1 seed in the Ivy Madness four-team tournament at Brown (March 14-15). They can claim their first outright crown this Saturday with a win or Princeton loss at Penn. In Friday’s win over Brown, past USBWA winner Kitty Henderson, who picked up her fourth Ivy weekly award Monday, collected the program’s second triple-double and first in two seasons, exactly duplicating Kaitlyn Davis’ 19 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, four steals and one turnover, which StatsPerform says are the only two Division I women’s players this century to do so. “I looked up at one point and saw I was close,” Henderson said afterwards. “As we all know, Diana Taurasi retired. She means a lot to one of my coaches and so she challenged me this week, [saying] 'I want you to get that for me.' It was just crazy that it happened today. Shoutout to my teammates, I wouldn't be able to do it without them." Then, a day later, senior classmate Cecelia Collins in the win over Yale also triple-doubled with 16 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists, joining Jackson State (2003) as the only schools in NCAA Division I women’s history that had teammates triple-double back-to-back.
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 a women's All-America team since the 1996-97 season. For more information on the USBWA and its award programs, contact executive director Malcolm Moran at 814-574-1485.
2024-25 USBWA Women's Weekly Honors
• Week ending Nov. 10: Destiny Adams, Rutgers; Raegan Beers, Oklahoma; Lauren Betts, UCLA; Diamond Johnson, Norfolk State; Olivia Miles, Notre Dame; (National); Syla Swords, Michigan (Freshman); Oregon (Team).
• Week ending Nov. 17: Paige Bueckers, Connecticut; Hayley Cavinder, Miami; Talaysia Cooper, Tennessee; Jordyn Jenkins, UTSA; Harmoni Turner, Harvard (National); Kate Koval, Notre Dame (Freshman); TCU (team).
• Week ending Nov. 24: Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame; Lauren Jensen, Creighton; Maya McDermott, Northern Iowa; Rose Micheaux, Virginia Tech; Sarah Strong, Connecticut (National); Toby Fournier, Duke (Freshman); UCLA (Team).
• Week ending Dec. 1: Ta’Niya Latson, Florida State; Aneesah Morrow, LSU; Hailey Van Lith, TCU; Sedona Prince, TCU; Clara Strack, Kentucky (National); Justice Carlton, Texas (Freshman); Duke (Team).
• Week ending Dec. 8: Sonia Citron, Notre Dame; Tiarra East, Temple; Emma Ronsiek, Colorado State; JuJu Watkins, USC; Mikaylah Williams, LSU (National); Sarah Miller, Penn (Freshman); South Carolina, Tennessee (Team).
• Week ending Dec. 15: Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame; S’Mya Nichols, Kansas; Khamil Pierre, Vanderbilt; Marta Suarez, California; Serah Williams, Wisconsin (National); Kiyomi McMiller, Rutgers (Freshman); Georgia Tech (Team).
• Week ending Dec. 22: Madison Conner, TCU; Frida Formann, Colorado, Sammie Puisis, South Florida; JuJu Watkins, USC; Laura Ziegler, Saint Joseph’s (National); Lanie Grant, North Carolina (Freshman); Alabama (Team).
• Week ending Dec. 29: Kara Dunn, Georgia Tech; Elle Ladine, Washington; Olivia Miles, Notre Dame; Kaylene Smikle, Maryland; JuJu Watkins, USC (National); Tori McKinney, Minnesota (Freshman); Norfolk State (Team).
• Week ending Jan. 5: Georgia Amoore, Kentucky; Lauren Betts, UCLA; Katie Dinnebier, Drake; Ta’Niya Latson, Florida State; Faith Masonius, Seton Hall (National); Jordan Lee, Texas (Freshman); Clemson (Team).
• Week ending Jan. 12: Zanai Barnett-Gay, Navy; Stailee Heard, Oklahoma State; Liatu King; Grace Larkins, South Dakota; JuJu Watkins, Notre Dame (National) Gal Raviv, Quinnipiac (Freshman); South Carolina (Team).
• Week ending Jan. 19: Paige Bueckers, Connecticut; Yvonne Ejim, Gonzaga; Aziaha James, NC State; Rachel Ullstrom, Richmond; Mikaylah Williams, LSU (National); Mikayla Blakes, Vanderbilt; Britt Prince, Nebraska (Freshman); South Carolina (Team).
• Week ending Jan. 26: Amaris Baker, Drexel; Lauren Betts, UCLA; Ta’Niya Latson, Florida State; Ashley Sofilkanich, Bucknell; Katelyn Young, Murray State (National); Mikayla Blakes, Vanderbilt (Freshman); Texas (Team).
• Week ending Feb. 2: Georgia Amoore, Kentucky; Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame; Lucy Olsen, Iowa; Riley Weiss, Columbia; Ali Zelava, UNCW (National); Mikayla Blakes, Vanderbilt (Freshman); North Carolina (Team).
• Week ending Feb. 9: Anna Gret Asi, Oklahoma State; Raiana Brown, Fairfield; Kiki Iriafen, USC; Aziaha James, NC State; Laura Ziegler, Saint Joseph’s (National); Toby Fournier, Duke (Freshman); Texas (Team).
• Week ending Feb. 16: Katie Dinnebier, Drake; Azzi Fudd, Connecticut; Reniya Kelly, North Carolina; Harmoni Turner, Harvard; JuJu Watkins, USC (National); Mikaya Blakes, Vanderbilt (Freshman); Texas (Team).
• Week ending Feb. 23: Raegan Beers, Oklahoma; MiLaysia Fulwiley, South Carolina; Alexis Mark, Portland; JuJu Watkins, USC; Riley Weiss, Columbia (National); Jaloni Cambridge, Ohio State (Freshman); NC State (Team).
• Week ending March. 2: Audi Crooks, Iowa State; Chloe Kitts, South Carolina; Shyanne Sellers, Maryland; JJ Quinerly, West Virginia; JuJu Watkins, USC (National); Toby Fournier, Duke (Freshman); Columbia (Team).