Los Angeles (March 9, 2015)—The John R. Wooden Award announced the 2015 Women's National Ballot today. Selected by the Wooden Award National Advisory Board, the ballot consists of 15 student-athletes who are eligible for college basketball’s most prestigious honor. All balloted players have proven to their universities that they are making progress toward graduation and are maintaining at least a cumulative 2.0 GPA.

Voting begins March 16, and voters, consisting of hundreds of members of the national women’s college basketball media, may take into consideration the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Voting ends March 24. The Wooden Award All American Team, consisting of the nation’s top five players, will be announced the week of the Final Four. The 39th annual Wooden Award ceremony will honor and reveal the Men's and Women's Wooden Award winners, and will include the presentation of the Wooden Award All American Teams and the Legends of Coaching Award, which in 2015 will go to San Diego State Head Men’s Basketball Coach Steve Fisher. This announcement of the winners will be televised live on ESPN2 from Club Nokia in Los Angeles at 5 p.m. on Friday April 10 as part of the first ever College Basketball Awards Show Presented by Wendy’s.

Connecticut, the 2014 NCAA champion and current No. 1-ranked team, has three players on the ballot: Moriah Jefferson, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Breanna Stewart, who is the only returning Wooden Award All American this season. Stewart, a junior forward who was named American Athletic Conference Player of the year last week, is averaging 17.4 points and 6.9 rebounds.  

Two more teams put a pair of players on the list: No. 25 California (Brittany Boyd, Rashanda Gray); and No. 3 South Carolina (Tiffany Mitchell, A’ja Wilson). Other players of note statistically include the nation’s top scorer, Ohio State freshman Kelsey Mitchell at 24.8 ppg; the country’s No. 6 scorer, Kelsey Plum of Washington (22.8); and the NCAA’s No. 2 rebounder, Jillian Alleyne of Oregon (15.2 rpg).

The ballot has five seniors, and two players chosen to the women’s ballot are freshmen: Kelsey Mitchell and Wilson. The Pac-12 led all conferences with four selections, followed by the Big Ten with three; the American with three, all from UConn; and the ACC and SEC with two each. The Big 12 and Big East had one apiece.

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 player at an institution of higher education who has proven to his or her university that he or she is making progress toward graduation and maintaining a minimum cumulative 2.0 GPA.  Previous winners include such notables as Larry Bird (’79), Michael Jordan (’84), Tim Duncan (’97), Candace Parker (’07 and ’08), Kevin Durant (’09) and Maya Moore of Connecticut (’09 and ‘11). Stanford’s Chiney Ogwumike won the 2014 Wooden Award.

Since its inception, the John R. Wooden Award has contributed close to a million dollars to universities’ general scholarship fund in the names of the All American recipients. The Award has also sent more than 1,000 underprivileged children to week-long college basketball camps in the Award’s name.   Additionally, the John R. Wooden Award partners with Special Olympics Southern California (SOSC) each year to host the Wooden Award Special Olympics Southern California Basketball Tournament.  The day-long tournament, which brings together Special Olympic athletes and the All Americans, takes place at The Los Angeles Athletic Club the weekend of the John R. Wooden Award Ceremony.

Follow the candidates and get the latest news throughout the season by going to the Wooden Award facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/WoodenAward or Twitter feed @WoodenAward.  For more information on the John R. Wooden Award, please contact the Wooden Award staff at 213-630-5231 or via email at [email protected].

 John R. Wooden Award Women's

2015 National Ballot