LOS ANGELES, Calif. (November 6, 2018) - The John R. Wooden Award® presented by Wendy’s® announced the Women’s Preseason Top 30 Watch List on ESPN’s SportsCenter and ESPNW. The list is comprised of 30 student-athletes who are the early front-runners for college basketball’s most prestigious honors, the John R. Wooden Award All American Team® and Most Outstanding Player Award. The list is chosen by a preseason poll of national women’s college basketball media members.

2018 Wooden Award All Americans Asia Durr of Louisville, Sabrina Ionescu of Oregon, and Katie Lou Samuelson of Connecticut headline this year’s Preseason Top 30 list. 2018 NCAA National Champion Notre Dame leads all schools with five selections (Marina Mabrey, Arike Ogunbowale, Jessica Shepard, Brianna Turner, and Jackie Young), followed by Connecticut with three selections (Napheesa Collier, Crystal Dangerfield, and Samuelson), while Baylor (Kalani Brown and Lauren Cox), Mississippi State (Anriel Howard and Teaira McCowan), Oregon (Ruthy Hebard and Ionescu), and Stanford (Alanna Smith and Kiana Williams) each have two players on the list.

Six conferences are represented on the Preseason Top 30 list. The ACC leads all conferences with 9 selections, followed by the Pac-12 and SEC with six selections apiece, the American (4), Big 12 (3) and Big Ten (2). Of the student-athletes selected for the Preseason Top 30 list, 28 of the 30 are upperclassmen, including 19 seniors. Continuing a trend, no freshman made the Preseason Top 30.

The players on the list are considered strong candidates for the 2019 John R. Wooden Award Women’s Player of the Year presented by Wendy’s. Players not chosen to the preseason list are still eligible for the Wooden Award™ midseason list, late season list, and the National Ballot. The National Ballot consists of 15 top players who have proven to their universities that they meet or exceed the qualifications of the Wooden Award. Voters will rank in order 10 of those 15 players when voting opens prior to the NCAA Tournament and will allow them to take into consideration performance during early round games. The Wooden Award All American Team will be announced the week of the “Elite Eight” round of the NCAA Tournament. The winner of the 2019 John R. Wooden Award will be presented by Wendy’s during the ESPN College Basketball Awards on Friday, April 12, 2019.

About the John R. Wooden Award

Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award is the most prestigious individual honor in college basketball. It is bestowed upon the nation’s best basketball player at an NCAA Division I university who has proven to his or her university that he or she meets or exceeds the qualifications of the John R. Wooden Award as set forth by Coach Wooden and the Wooden Award Steering Committee, including making progress towards graduation and maintaining at least a 2.0 cumulative GPA. Previous winners include Larry Bird (’79), Michael Jordan (’84), Tim Duncan (’97), Kevin Durant (’07), Candace Parker (’07 & ’08), Maya Moore (’09 & ’11), Chiney Ogwumike (’14), and last year’s recipients, A’ja Wilson of South Carolina and Jalen Brunson of Villanova.

Since its inception, the John R. Wooden Award has contributed nearly one million dollars to the universities’ general scholarship fund in the names of the Wooden Award All American recipients and has sent more than 1,000 underprivileged children to week-long college basketball camps. Additionally, the John R. Wooden Award partners with the Special Olympics Southern California (SOSC) each year to host the Wooden Award Special Olympics Southern California Basketball Tournament. The day-long tournament brings together Special Olympics athletes and Wooden Award All Americans and coaches in attendance. It is hosted at the Los Angeles Athletic Club during the John R. Wooden Award Weekend.

For up-to-date information on the Wooden Award, please go to www.woodenaward.com and follow the Wooden Award on Facebook at www.facebook.com/woodenaward and @WoodenAward on Twitter and Instagram.

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John R. Wooden Award Presented By Wendy’s

2018-19 Preseason Top 30

# indicates players selected as a 2017-18 John R. Wooden Award All American