The John R. Wooden Award® presented by Wendy's® today announced the Women's Preseason Top 50 Watch List with Villanova star forward
Maddy Siegrist (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) being named to the list. Chosen by a preseason poll of national college basketball experts, the list is comprised of 50 student-athletes who are the early front-runners for the most prestigious honors in college basketball, the Wooden Award All American Team™ and Most Outstanding Player Award.
After two games in 2022-23, Siegrist has tallied 43 points and 26 rebounds. Her best effort of the year came in a win at No. 24 Princeton when she had 32 points and 13 rebounds. Siegrist, who is the reigning BIG EAST Player of the Year, led the Wildcats to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2018 last season by shattering the BIG EAST record for scoring averaging 27.9 points per game over 17 league contests, besting the previous mark of 26.6 which had been on the books since 1991-92. Additionally, she finished second in rebounding at 9.9 boards per game, and 10
th in both steals (1.6) and blocks (0.9). Siegrist's overall scoring average of 25.3 points per game ranked second nationally in 2021-22 and she reached the 30-point mark a BIG EAST-best nine times, the 20-point threshold 21 times and notched 12 double-doubles.
In addition to being the BIG EAST Player of the Year last year, she earned third team All-American accolades from both the USBWA and Associated Press. Siegrist has garnered first team All-BIG EAST honors the last three seasons.
2022 Wooden Award winner Aliyah Boston (South Carolina) headlines the list along with 2022 Wooden Award All American Caitlin Clark (Iowa). Several schools have multiple selections on the list, led by South Carolina (Brea Beal, Boston and Zia Cooke), Tennessee (Jordan Horston, Rickea Jackson and Tamari Key) and Virginia Tech (Elizabeth Kitley, Ashley Owusu and Taylor Soule) with three selections each. They are followed by Iowa (Clark and Monika Czinano), Iowa State (Lexi Donarski and Ashley Joens), Indiana (Grace Berger and Mackenzie Holmes), LSU (Alexis Morris and Angel Reese), Louisville (Morgan Jones and Hailey Van Lith), NC State (Jakia Brown-Turner and Diamond Johnson), Notre Dame (Olivia Miles and Maddy Westbeld), Ohio State (Taylor Mikesell and Jacy Sheldon), Oklahoma (Taylor Robertson and Madi Williams), Stanford (Cameron Brink and Haley Jones), and Texas (Shaylee Gonzales and Rori Harmon).
Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award Program hosts the most prestigious honors in college basketball recognizing The Wooden Award Most Outstanding Player for men and women, The Wooden Award All America Teams for men and women and the annual selection of the Wooden Award Legend of Coaching recipient. Honorees have proven to their university that they meet or exceed 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, Aliyah Boston of South Carolina and Oscar Tshiebwe of Kentucky.
