Ogwumike, Plum, Rueck receive top Pac-12 women's basketball honors from media
SEATTLE - A panel of Pac-12 women’s basketball media members who cover the league voted STANFORD SR F Chiney Ogwumike Pac-12 Player of the Year and Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year. Additionally, the panel selected WASHINGTON G Kelsey Plum Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and OREGON STATE head coach Scott Rueck Pac-12 Coach of the Year, the Conference office announced today.
Chiney Ogwumike (Cypress, Texas) was a unanimous pick for the second-straight year for the Player of Year honor by the media. A Cardinal has won the honor in each of the five years of the media-voted award. She and older sister, All-American Nnemkadi Ogwumike, have won it twice each. Chiney’s defensive player of the year nod is also the second in a row for the All-American and consensus national player of the year candidate. Ogwumike led Stanford to a 17-1 Pac-12 record and 28-2 overall. Leading the way for the Cardinal, the team has won its 14th-consecutive Conference regular-season title and clinched the No. 1 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament for the 13th-consecutive year. Ogwumike is the only player in the country to rank in the top 10 in the country in scoring (27.0, 3rd), rebounding (12.1, 8th), field goal percentage (62.2) and double-doubles (22, 6th). She is the Conference’s all-time leading rebounder with 1,483 boards and is one shy of entering the top 10 in the NCAA’s all-time career list. She is 49 points away from tying the Pac-12 all-time scoring record, having scored 810 points so far this season, which is also a single-season Pac-12 record. She is the only player in league history to have tallied 800 points in a season twice. Ogwumike was named the Pac-12 Player of the Year for the second-straight year by the league’s coaches, which was announced on Tuesday. She was also the coaches’ pick for the Defensive Player of the Year for the third-straight year.
A guard from Poway, Calif., Kelsey Plum was also the Pac-12’s coaches’ selection for the top freshman honor, as well. Plum is the second-highest scoring freshman in the country and ranks fourth in the Pac-12, averaging 20.9 points per game. Plum has recorded 16 20-point games, including three 30-point performances. She was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week a Conference-record seven times this season, while helping Washington claim the No. 6 seed in the tournament. UW has posted two upset victories in the final month of the season, including defeating then-No. 4 Stanford in what was one of the biggest wins in program history. Plum ranks fifth in the Pac-12 with a 2.41 three-per-game average, also boasting a 36.8 percent long-range shooting percentage, good for 10th in the Pac-12. Plum is the second Husky in three years to win the media’s and coaches’ freshman honor. Teammate Jazmine Davis won the award in 2012.
In his fourth season at the Oregon State helm, Scott Rueck is the media’s selection for Pac-12 Coach of the Year for the second time, winning the award in 2012. Rueck has resurrected a Beaver program that had won just two league games in his first two four years ago. This year, the Beavers have finished tied for second in the Pac-12 standings, the program’s best finish since 1995-96, going 13-5 in league play. The Beavers’ 21 wins this season are the most for the program since 1994-95, while the 13 Conference wins are a program record. OSU earned the third seed in the Pac-12 tournament, the team’s best-ever seeding in the 13-year history of the event. This season’s successes saw OSU more than triple its league wins from a year ago when the Beavers went 4-14, and more than doubled its overall win total (10 in 2013). Rueck is a 1991 graduate of Oregon State.
The media also selected a 15-member All-Pac-12 team, a five-member All-Defensive team and a five-member All-Freshman team.
It is the fifth year of the Pac-12 media awards and are in addition to the Conference awards voted on by the league coaches, which will be announced on Wednesday. The panel included local and national media members.
2014 Pac-12 Media All-Pac-12:
Jillian Alleyne, ORE; Brittany Boyd, CAL; Jazmine Davis, WASH; Reshanda Gray, CAL; Ruth Hamblin, OSU; Cassie Harberts, USC; Deja Mann, ASU; Atonye Nyingifa, UCLA; Chiney Ogwumike, STAN; Amber Orrange, STAN; Michelle Plouffe, UTAH; Kelsey Plum, WASH; Tia Presley, WSU; Chrishae Rowe, ORE; Sydney Wiese, OSU.
2014 Media All-Defensive Team:
Jillian Alleyne, ORE; Brittany Boyd, CAL; Lia Galdeira, WSU; Ruth Hamblin, OSU; Chiney Ogwumike, STAN.
2014 Pac-12 Media All-Freshman Team:
Kelsey Plum, WASH; Emily Potter, UTAH; Chrishae Rowe, ORE; Lili Thompson, STAN; Sydney Wiese, OSU.