Five Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Players Named Wooden Midseason Top 25

SAN FRANCISCO - Five Pac-12 women's basketball players were included in the John R. Wooden Award Midseason Top 25 list, which was recently announced. The Conference has the second-most honorees of any league in the country. Chosen by a poll of national college basketball experts, the list comprises of 25 student-athletes who are front-runners for the sport’s most prestigious honor, based on their performances during the first half of the 2016-17 season.

Five different Pac-12 schools are represented on the list: CALIFORNIA’s Kristine Anigwe, UCLA’s Jordin Canada, STANFORD’s Erica McCall, WASHINGTON’s Kelsey Plum and OREGON STATE’s Sydney Wiese.

A sophomore, Anigwe recently scored her 1,000th career point in her 47th-career game, the fastest player in Conference history to reach the milestone. The USBWA National Freshman of the Year in 2016, she tied the Pac-12’s all-time single-game scoring record earlier in the season, netting 50 points, while helping the Bears to its best-ever start to the season.

Canada has led the Bruins to a top-10 national ranking for most of the season while averaging 17.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. The Pac-12’s preseason favorite to win the league, she leads the Conference averaging 7.13 points per game.

McCall has also helped Stanford post a top-15 national ranking. She is the team’s scoring and rebounding leader with 16.9 points and 9.1 rebounds per game. She led the Cardinal to the NCAA Elite Eight last year.

After leading their respective teams to their first-ever NCAA Final Four last year, Plum and Wiese are having impressive senior campaigns. Plum is on the verge of scoring her 3,000th-career point after breaking the Conference’s all-time scoring record. An All-American last year, Plum is the nation’s scoring leader, averaging a blistering 30.7 points per game.

Wiese recently broke the Conference’s three-point shooting record, while helping the Beavers to three-straight top-20 wins over the last week. The only team with an undefeated Conference record, Wiese is the team’s leading scorer at 16.3 points per game and assists leader at 4.88 assists per game.

The players on the list are considered strong candidates for the 2017 John R. Wooden Award. The leading candidates will be further pared to 20 top players in early February. Fifteen top players who have proven to their universities that they are also making progress toward graduation and maintaining at least a cumulative 2.0 GPA will be submitted to voters on the Final Ballot prior to the NCAA Tournament. Every year, players have made the Final Ballot that were not on the preseason or midseason lists. Voters are permitted to take into consideration the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament when casting the ballot. The ten-man Wooden Award All-American Team will be announced the week of the “Elite Eight” round of the NCAA Tournament.

For more information, visit the Wooden Awards’ official site at www.woodenaward.com.