Country United States | First awarded 1987 | |
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Currently held by |
The Pac-12 Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Year is a basketball award given to the Pac-12 Conference's most outstanding player. The award was first given following the 1986–87 season, the first year in which the league then known as the Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10) officially sponsored women's sports.
Currently, two bodies vote for players of the year. The league's head coaches have selected a winner since the award's inception, and media members who cover Pac-12 women's basketball began presenting their own version of the award in the 2009–10 season. As is the case with the corresponding men's award, coaches are not allowed to vote for their own players.
Eight players have won the award more than once, but only one, Candice Wiggins of Stanford, has won three times. Four players, all from Stanford, have won a major end-of-season national award in the year that they won the conference award. Jennifer Azzi claimed the Naismith Award and Wade Trophy in 1990; Kate Starbird won the Naismith Award in 1997; Wiggins earned the Wade Trophy in 2008; and Chiney Ogwumike won the Wooden Award in 2014.
There have been three shared awards. Starbird and Tanja Kostić of Oregon State tied for the coaches' award in 1996. In 2015, Reshanda Gray of California won the coaches' award and Ruth Hamblin of Oregon State won the media award. The following year, Jamie Weisner of Oregon State won the coaches' award outright and shared the media award with Jillian Alleyne of Oregon.
The list of honorees has been dominated by Stanford, which has had 10 players earn a total of 18 awards. The rest of the conference has had 15 players earn a total of 16 awards. Four current Pac-12 members have yet to have a winner: established members Arizona State and Washington State, plus 2011 arrivals Colorado and Utah.