| Award |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|
| Player of the Year | Sarah Strong, UConn | Sarah Strong, UConn | Sarah Strong, UConn |
| Freshman of the Year | Jazzy Davidson, USC | Jazzy Davidson, USC | Aaliyah Chavez, Oklahoma |
| Defensive Player of the Year | Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame | Sarah Strong, UConn | Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame |
| Coach of the Year | Shea Ralph, Vanderbilt | Shea Ralph, Vanderbilt | Kara Lawson, Duke |
| Most Improved Player | Jordan Lee, Texas | Gabriela Jaquez, UCLA | Ava Heiden, Iowa |
| Sixth Player of the Year | MiLaysia Fulwiley, LSU | MiLaysia Fulwiley, LSU | MiLaysia Fulwiley, LSU |
| First-team All-Americans | Sarah Strong, Mikayla Blakes, Lauren Betts, Hannah Hidalgo, Madison Booker | Sarah Strong, Mikayla Blakes, Lauren Betts, Hannah Hidalgo, Madison Booker | Sarah Strong, Mikayla Blakes, Lauren Betts, Hannah Hidalgo, Madison Booker |
| Second-team All-Americans | Azzi Fudd, Rori Harmon, Olivia Miles, Joyce Edwards, Jaloni Cambridge | Joyce Edwards, Azzi Fudd, Olivia Miles, Kiki Rice, Jaloni Cambridge | Azzi Fudd, Olivia Olson, Toby Fournier, Olivia Miles, Joyce Edwards |
Women's college basketball awards: Expert picks for Player and Coach of the Year, All-American teams and more
Our CBS Sports experts make their selections for postseason awards as we await the bracket reveal on Sunday
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4 min read
Well, friends, we made it to the most wonderful time of the year: March! The NCAA Tournament bracket is set, and March Madness tips off later this week. So, here at CBS Sports, we figured it was the perfect time to make our picks for postseason awards. We last checked in on our selections in January, and while we've seen a lot of basketball chaos since then, was any of it enough to make us change our minds?
Keep reading for our award winners and explanations as well prepare for the true madness to begin.
Expert explanations
Gonzalez: I've kept many of my picks from the midseason awards, including Sarah Strong as Player of the Year. I also once again have Hannah Hidalgo as Defensive Player of the Year. There were a few worthy candidates for this category, but Hidalgo's clutch steal in the regular season finale against Louisville continued to showcase her impressive basketball IQ. Jordan Lee is also still my Most Improved Player with how valuable she has been for Texas, a team that made a loud statement by winning the SEC Tournament.
I now have Jazzy Davidson as Freshman of the Year because, despite USC's struggles this season, the future looks bright. She is the only player in Division I basketball leading her teams in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. I still think that what Geno Auriemma is doing with UConn is outstanding year after year, and I also believe Cori Close has UCLA as a serious national championship contender. However, I think Shea Ralph is the Coach of the Year because Vanderbilt has been one of the most surprising teams this season and what the Commodores have achieved - despite some stumbles - has been impressive.
For Sixth Player of the Year, I do think MiLaysia Fulwiley's game can become more consistent. That being said, she is a key reason why LSU leads the nation in bench points. Despite the Tigers falling short against South Carolina in the SEC semifinals, Fulwiley had a great performance.
Maloney: Sarah Strong has been the best player in college basketball this season and deserves both Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors. She put up 18.5 points, 7.6 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 3.4 steals and 1.6 blocks per game on 60/42.5/88.2 shooting splits, and was two missed free throws away from inventing the 60/40/90 club. And consider that she did all of that while playing less than 27 minutes per game because UConn routinely beat teams by 30-plus points. Strong leads the country in PER (46.8), win shares (10.8) and box score plus-minus (+28.3) and is second in Hakeem rate, which is the sum of a player's block rate and steal rate (15.1%). Thanks in large part to Strong and her unique talent and versatility on both sides of the ball, the Huskies are undefeated, ranked No. 1 in the country and are the favorites to win the national championship for the second season in a row.
Freshman of the Year was a very close race. Ultimately, Jazzy Davidson's defensive contributions earned her the slight nod over Aaliyah Chavez and Aubrey Galvan. Coach of the Year should pretty clearly go to Shea Ralph. No one expected the No. 6-ranked Commodores to go 27-3 and be a possible Final Four team. Most Improved Player could go in a bunch of different directions. I went with Gabriela Jaquez, who has grown into a first-round WNBA draft pick this season for UCLA. Finally, Sixth Player of the Year should go to MiLaysia Fulwiley, who was incredible down the stretch for LSU.
Gibbs: I was very close to picking Mikayla Blakes as the Player of the Year - she has a pretty phenomenal case, considering she is leading the nation in scoring with 27 points per game in the toughest conference in the country. But ultimately, Strong's case was just better and I'm just going to point to my colleague Jack's explanation as proof. As for the All-Americans, the first team was easy - just like the top-four teams in the nation have separated themselves from the pack, the top-five players have, too. For the second team, there were many contenders, but I specifically wanted to highlight Duke sophomore Toby Fournier, who has been criminally under-the-spotlight all season.
While we're talking about Duke, Kara Lawson got my nod for Coach of the Year. I absolutely believe in the case for Shea Ralph as well, but Vanderbilt was on fire from the start of the season. The way Lawson navigated her team from sky-high preseason expectations through a disastrous 3-6 start and then all the way back to an ACC regular-season championship and ACC tournament championship was magnificent, especially considering she lost two key pieces, Emilee Skinner and Jadyn Donovan, along the way.
Elsewhere, I gave Aaliyah Chavez the nod over Jazzy Davidson because of the way she showed up for her team in clutch moments to help them win meaningful games; Hannah Hidalgo is my Defensive Player of the Year because, well, she had 5.4 steals per game; Ava Heiden gets Most Improved because her breakout season has was the primary reason why Iowa became a regular in the top 10 this year and, while I almost named Imari Berry sixth player of the year, MiLaysia Fulwiley's late-season run was simply undeniable.
