Iowa guard Caitlin Clark was named the 2023 Naismith Player of the Year in women’s college basketball, while South Carolina coach Dawn Staley was named the Coach of the Year and forward Aliyah Boston won Defensive Player of the Year for a second year straight. Here’s what you need to know:
Backstory
With Clark’s historic triple-double on Sunday, she became the first player in men’s or women’s NCAA Division I basketball history to record more than 900 points and 300 assists in a single season. She is the second Hawkeye to win the honor in the past five years, after 2019 Naismith Trophy winner Megan Gustafson.
Staley, a two-time Naismith Trophy winner as a player for Virginia in 1991 and 1992, becomes the only head coach in men’s or women’s college basketball to win the Coach of the Year award after winning the Naismith Trophy as a player. She’s led the top-seeded Gamecocks to an undefeated season as the reigning national champions.
Clark and Staley were selected by the Atlanta Tipoff Club’s national voting academy, which is made up of media members, current and former coaches, former award winners and conference commissioners, who based selections on “outstanding on-court performances during the 2022-23 college basketball season,” per the club. Fans also had an opportunity to cast a ballot, which accounted for five percent of the vote.
Boston was selected by the Atlanta Tipoff Club’s board of selectors based on her “outstanding on-court defensive performances during the 2022-23 college basketball season.”
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(Photo: Alika Jenner / Getty Images)
