An eventful day for the Big Ten Player of the Year.
Iowa Hawkeyes senior guard Kathleen Doyle was named as one of five finalists for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Shooting Guard of the Year Award, it was announced by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as well as the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association on Tuesday.
The La Grange, Illinois native was selected as a finalist alongside Arizona’s Aari McDonald, Duke’s Haley Gorecki, Louisville’s Dana Evans and Texas A&M’s Chennedy Carter. The winner will be announced at the College Basketball Awards show on April 10.
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Doyle has played 30 games so far this season and is averaging career-bests in points per game and field goal percentage, at 18.1 and 44%, respectively. She’s also contributing 6.3 rebounds per game, 4.6 assists per game and shooting 79% from the free throw line. The announcement comes the week after she was selected as the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Player of the Year and unanimously as first-team All-Big Ten.
Doyle has led Iowa to a 23-7 overall record in 2019-20, including 14-4 in conference play, through the regular season and Big Ten Tournament, where the Hawkeyes were upset in the quarterfinals by Ohio State. They will learn their NCAA Tournament fate this Monday, March 16.
In addition to the athletic recognition, Doyle was also awarded with second-team Academic All-America honors by the College Sports Information Directors of America on Monday — one of two Big Ten athletes to earn this distinction along with Michigan State Men’s Basketball’s Xavier Tillman.
Doyle double-majors in Journalism & Mass Communication as well as Spanish, and currently holds a 3.83 GPA. She has previously been named a two-time Academic All-Big Ten selection.
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