Chennedy Carter, Destiny Slocum among underclassmen Wooden candidates
Who will take home the Wooden Award? Here’s what the field looks like.
The 30 candidates for college basketball’s most prestigious individual honor, the John R. Wooden Award, were recently announced. The early preseason list for the John R. Wooden Award All American Team® and Most Outstanding Player Award, as voted on by national women’s college basketball media members, contains the best of the best.
Making the watch list for the second consecutive year as early favorites are Asia Durr of Louisville, Sabrina Ionescu of Oregon and Katie Lou Samuelson of Connecticut. Other nominees include Marina Mabrey, Arike Ogunbowale, Jessica Shepard, Brianna Turner and Jackie Young of Notre Dame, Napheesa Collier and Crystal Dangerfield of Connecticut, Kalani Brown and Lauren Cox of Baylor, Anriel Howard and Teaira McCowan of Mississippi State, Ruthy Hebard of Oregon and Alanna Smith and Kiana Williams of Stanford.
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Unsurprisingly, the Top 30 is infused with the game’s finest veterans. But four sophomores worth paying attention to this season made the 2019 watch list: Texas A&M’s Chennedy Carter, Tennessee’s Rennia Davis, Oregon State’s Destiny Slocum and Williams of Stanford. Although Slocum sat out last season after transferring from Maryland, the damage she’ll do this year is inevitable. These four, on paper, held their own as freshmen — and certainly carry their weight on this watch list, too.
Carter’s list of accolades is endless, but at the top is her unanimous selection as the National Freshman of the Year by espnW, USA Today Sports, the USBWA and the WBCA to go with AP and WBCA All-America honors. When the lights were brightest, she averaged over 30 points per game in the NCAA Tournament last season and was four points shy of a 50-piece in the regular season.
Davis was another force to be reckoned with at Tennessee in her rookie season. Starting in all but one game as a freshman, she was named to the SEC All-Freshman team and averaged 12 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. Not to mention, Davis shot .483 from the field, .329 from three-point land and .740 from the charity stripe.
It’s only a matter of time before we see how Slocum bounces back from sitting out a season. If her first year at Maryland was any indication of being able to adapt to change, she will be very, very good for Oregon State again this year. The Big 10 Freshman of the Year will learn the ins and outs of a new conference in the Pac-12 and look to contribute in a variety of ways for the Beavers.
Williams, the 5’8″ guard, drained 71 three-pointers last year and was a Pac-12 finalist for Freshman of the Year. She played in 35 games, starting in 26 of those, and ended the season shooting a 41.4 clip from the field. Williams overcame a somewhat slow start for the Cardinal but went on to score in double-figures in 19 of the season’s last 28 games.
The bottom line is that age is just a number, even on college basketball’s most prestigious watch list. All four have worked and earned their way into the Top 30. And if not finalists this season, you better believe their names will be on here again over the next two years.
The Wooden Award All American Team will be announced during the “Elite Eight” of the NCAA Tournament. The winner of the 2019 John R. Wooden Award, presented by Wendy’s, will be announced during the ESPN College Basketball Awards on Friday, April 12, 2019.