Six from Pac-12 named to women’s Naismith watch list

SAN FRANCISCO - Six Pac-12 women’s basketball players were named to the 2017 Naismith Women’s College Player of the Year watch list, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced on Wednesday. Five Pac-12 teams were represented on the list with WASHINGTON as the only league team to have multiple representatives as Chantel Osahor and Kelsey Plum were among the 50 players named to the list. The midseason list of 30 will be announced on Feb. 8, 2017.

Plum (Poway, Calif.) and Osahor (Phoenix, Ariz.) are currently leading the Conference and the nation in scoring and rebounding, respectively, Plum averaging an outstanding 29.9 points per game and Osahor grabbing 14.0 rebounds per game, while helping the #13/13 Huskies post a 6-1 record so far. Plum was an All-American last season after helping UW reach the program’s first-ever NCAA Women’s Final Four and Osahor was voted the Pac-12 Player of the Week this week.

CALIFORNIA’s Kristine Anigwe (Phoenix, Ariz.) is currently third in the Pac-12 in scoring (18.5 ppg) and rebounding (9.7 rpg), helping the Golden Bears to a 6-0 record to start the season, one of just three undefeated league teams remaining. Anigwe was voted the USBWA National Freshman of the Year last year.

OREGON STATE’s Sydney Wiese (Phoenix, Ariz.) also helped the #24/18 Beavers to their first-ever trip to the NCAA Women’s Final Four last year. A three-time All-Pac-12 honoree, she has helped OSU boast the second-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the country (1.87) and fifth-best assists per game average (21.0 apg).

STANFORD’s Erica McCall (Bakersfield, Calif.) leads the #11/11 Cardinal and ranks seventh in the Pac-12 in scoring (17.1 ppg) and rebounds (7.4 rpg). She helped Stanford to the NCAA Elite Eight last season, before the Cardinal fell to the Huskies in Lexington. She was named to the All-NCAA Lexington Regional team.

UCLA’s Jordin Canada (Los Angeles, Calif.) rounds out the Pac-12 list. An All-Pac-12 honoree last year, she is on the Nancy Lieberman Award Watch List, presented to the top point guard in the country. She was also a preseason All-American by the Associated Press. Canada is tied for fourth in the Pac-12 in scoring (18.0 ppg), while ranking sixth in the nation in assists per game (7.3 apg).