Ionescu earns place on Wooden Award ballot for second straight season

Oregon guard earns another honor this week after winning top Pac-12 award

Sabrina Ionescu of Oregon leads a lineup of 15 players who made the national ballot for the John R. Wooden Award, the Los Angeles Athletic Club announced on Saturday.

The 5-11 junior guard registered an NCAA record seven triple-doubles this season in posting averages of 19.4 points, 8.1 assists and 7.4 rebounds per game. She scored 18 points, tied her season-high with 12 rebounds and dished out six assists in the Ducks 88-83 overtime win over UCLA in the PAC-12 Tournament semifinal Saturday night. That came one night after she tied her own tournament record with 13 assists in Friday’s quarterfinal victory over Arizona.

Twice this season she earned Pac-12 Player of the Week honors.

More from NCAA

• Your Day in Women’s Basketball, April 6: Stanford defeats Arizona in a tightly contested matchup to win the national title
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• Your Day in Women’s Basketball, March 26: Louisville and Texas A&M survive and advance
• Your Day in Women’s Basketball, March 23: Highlights from the first round of the NCAA Tournament
• Your Day in Women’s Basketball, March 16: Tournament bracket released

Ionescu has been the most versatile in women’s college hoops over during her career. Last year, she won the Nancy Liberman Award, which goes to the country’s best point guard, and made numerous All-American teams. Over her three years in Eugene, she’s scored nearly 1,868 points, grabbed 723 rebounds and made 748 assists. The 17 triple-doubles are an NCAA career record for either men or women. She’s also a 43 percent shooter from beyond the 3-point arc.

"“I think what makes her special is that it’s not that she’s the most athletic or quickest,” Arizona coach Adia Barnes told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “She’s extremely smart. She can score in a lot of different ways. She has a good midrange game. She’s got a good 3-point shot. She’s an extremely good passer. That makes a complete player.”"

Ionescu, two other 2018 Wooden All Americans on the ballot

The Oregon star is one of three 2018 Wooden Award All Americans to be named on the 2019 ballot. She joins Louisville senior guard Asia Durr and Connecticut senior guard Katie Lou Samuelson, who will miss the American Athletic Conference tournament this weekend as she recovers from a back injury she suffered last weekend, from last year’s squad.

This list also includes six conference player of the year winners. Besides Ionescu (Pac-12) and Durr (ACC), other award winners include Mississippi State senior center Teaira McCowan (SEC), Iowa State senior guard Bridget Carleton (Big 12), Iowa senior forward Megan Gustafson (Big Ten) and Connecticut senior forward Napheesa Collier.

UConn isn’t the only school with two players on the ballot. Notre Dame’s Arike Ogunbowale, a senior guard, and Jessica Shepard, a senior forward, made the list.

Maryland junior guard Kalia Charles and Texas A&M sophomore guard Chennedy Carter join Ionescu as the only underclassmen on the ballot.

Other players listed are California senior forward Kristine Anigwe, Baylor senior center Kalani Brown, Missouri senior guard Sophie Cunningham and Stanford senior forward Alanna Smith.

The ballot now goes to a nationwide panel of experts who will cast their votes next week and can consider each player’s performance in the early rounds of the NCAA Tournament before making their selections.

The 2019 Wooden Award All-American Team will be announced after the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight, and the Wooden Award will be presented on April 12 during a nationally televised college basketball awards show broadcast on ESPN2.

A’ja Wilson of South Carolina won the award last season.

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