Roundup: Sabrina Ionescu, Destiny Slocum, Kennedy Leonard on Nancy Lieberman Award watch list

Oregon State women’s basketball guard Destiny Slocum is on the Nancy Lieberman Award watch list (best PG in the nation), it was announced MondaySlocum was the WBCA National Freshman of the Year at Maryland two seasons ago before transferring to Oregon State.

Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu, who won the award in 2017-18, is also on the list, The Oregonian reports. The list will be trimmed to 10 players in February, and the winner will be named at the 2019 Final Four.

CU senior Kennedy Leonard was also selected for the Nancy Lieberman Award watch list. It marks the second straight season she has earned a spot among the country's elite point guards.

Utah track athlete Lauren McCluskey died Monday night (Utah.edu). She was killed near a residential area on the Utah campus. McCluskey, 21, was a senior from Pullman, Washington. A vigil is planned for Wednesday evening at 5 p.m. MT on the steps of the Park building.

UCLA men’s basketball is ranked 21st in the AP preseason poll, it was announced Monday. The other Pac-12 teams in the preseason AP Top 25 are No. 14 Oregon and No. 25 Washington. Kansas is No. 1.

Adam Jude writes that the Huskies have their sights set on the Pac-12 title after taking care of Colorado Saturday afternoon. The Huskies are 4-1 in Pac-12 play, a half game up on Stanford and Washington State in the North.

We had a similar link for the Cougs yesterday, but Alex Kirshner of SB Nation puts it a little more bluntly – Washington State is the Pac-12’s last hope of having a College Football Playoff team as the conference’s lone loss school (Kirshner gets into more numbers than that though).

We forgot to get to this on Monday, but it’s never too late to let you know that Cal rugby won the West Coast 7s on Treasure Island Sunday, defeating UCLA 19-5 in the cup final. The Golden Bears are 12-0 in the 7s season this year.

Arizona women’s volleyball middle blocker Devyn Cross was named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week after tying a career high with nine blocks in a win over Utah.

Stanford men’s water polo freshman Jackson Seybold was named MPSF Newcomer of the Week after scoring four goals in wins over Pacific and Wagner last week. This kid is the truth; he scored a game-winning goal with one second left against UCLA earlier this year.

Michelle Gardner of the Arizona Republic writes that Arizona State football is shaking off another close loss as it gets ready for USC. All four of the Sun Devils’ losses have come by seven points.

This is a weird trend – USC’s fast starts have turned into blowout losses this season, Joey Kaufman notes. The Trojans were up two scores in both the Texas and Utah games, which they both ended up losing by two scores.