Earlier this week, the Pac-12 released their end of season women’s basketball awards and let’s just say Stanford did alright. There are two groups of awards: Those selected by the Pac-12 head coaches and those selected by the media.
In the performance awards chosen by the coaches, Stanford junior guard Haley Jones was named Player of the Year, Stanford sophomore forward Cameron Brink was named Defensive Player of the Year, and Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer was named Coach of the Year.
Cameron Brink and Haley Jones along with senior teammate Lexie Hull were also named to the All-Pac-12 Team. As for the All-Defensive Team, Lexie Hull and Cameron Brink made the cut along with 6th year teammate Anna Wilson. As for the All-Freshman team, Stanford freshman Kiki Iriafen was honorable mention.
Switching gears to the performance awards chosen by the media, Cameron Brink was named both Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.
Cameron Brink, Lexie Hull, and Haley Jones were named to the All-Pac-12 Team. Cameron Brink, Lexie Hull, and Anna Wilson were named to the All-Defensive Team. And while being honorable mention in the coaches poll, the media showed more love to Kiki Iriafen, putting her on the All-Freshman team.
Between the two polls, Stanford cleaned up. As far as which polls I think got it right, as a member of the media who did vote, I gotta be biased towards my own people and say the media did a better job except for one award: They did not name Tara VanDerveer Coach of the Year, instead giving it to Washington State head coach Kamie Ethridge. In my opinion, if you guide your team to an undefeated 16-0 season in league play, you should be Coach of the Year. That all said, Ethridge was my number two choice on my ballot and she had a hell of a season up in Pullman, so if there is anyone deserving of it outside of Tara, it’s Kamie for sure.
Stanford will return to action on Thursday in the Pac-12 tournament against Oregon State at 2:30 PM PT on Pac-12 Networks.
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