Photo by: Samuel Marshall
Clean Sweep: Ionescu Wins Second Straight Wooden Award
04/06/20 | Women's Basketball
EUGENE, Ore. – By unanimous decision, Sabrina Ionescu is the best player in women's college basketball.
Ionescu won the prestigious Wooden Award for the second straight season on Monday afternoon, completing a clean sweep of the major national player of the year awards for the 2019-20 season. Ionescu won both the Naismith Trophy and the Wade Trophy last week, and she has also been named national player of the year by the Associated Press, USBWA and ESPN.com.
Ionescu joins Seimone Augustus, Candace Parker, Maya Moore, Brittney Griner and Breanna Stewart as the only two-time winners of the Wooden Award, which has been presented annually to the nation's most outstanding women's college basketball player since 2004.
"It's historical," said head coach Kelly Graves. "To see what she's doing – I don't know how often this has been done where one player sweeps everything. And those that have done it would be considered the icons of the game — and I think you can include her there.
"The only unfortunate part of this is, she doesn't get a chance to validate it with a national championship, like many of the others have. I believe to my core that was going to be the icing on the cake."
Ionescu was stellar once again in 2019-20, leading the Ducks to a 31-2 overall record and a sweep of the Pac-12 regular-season and tournament championships. The only collegiate player ever to reach 2,000 career points (2,562), 1,000 assists (1,091) and 1,000 rebounds (1,040), Ionescu matched her own NCAA single-season record as a senior with eight triple-doubles to give her 26 for her career, more than twice as many as any other player in history.
The Walnut Creek, Calif., native was fourth in the Pac-12 with a team-high 17.5 points per game while grabbing a career-best 8.6 rebounds and dishing out an NCAA-leading 9.1 assists per game. Ionescu also ranked fourth in the nation with a stellar 3.05 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Though her career ended abruptly with the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament due to COVID-19, Ionescu shined in her final games while leading Oregon to the Pac-12 Tournament title. Ionescu was named the tournament's most outstanding player for the second time in her career after nearly averaging a triple-double through three games, headlined by a 31-point performance in the semifinals against Arizona.
The Pac-12 all-time assists leader for both women and men, Ionescu's 1,091 career assists rank fourth in NCAA women's basketball history. She is also Oregon's all-time leader in points, three-pointers (329) and double-figure scoring games (134).
Ionescu is widely expected to be the top overall pick in the upcoming WNBA Draft, which will be held virtually on Friday, April 17, beginning at 5 p.m. PT on ESPN.
Ionescu won the prestigious Wooden Award for the second straight season on Monday afternoon, completing a clean sweep of the major national player of the year awards for the 2019-20 season. Ionescu won both the Naismith Trophy and the Wade Trophy last week, and she has also been named national player of the year by the Associated Press, USBWA and ESPN.com.
Ionescu joins Seimone Augustus, Candace Parker, Maya Moore, Brittney Griner and Breanna Stewart as the only two-time winners of the Wooden Award, which has been presented annually to the nation's most outstanding women's college basketball player since 2004.
Earlier on Monday, Ionescu won her third straight Nancy Lieberman Award as the national point guard of the year, and was joined on the Naismith Starting Five by teammates Ruthy Hebard and Satou Sabally. Ionescu is a unanimous first-team all-American and the Pac-12 player of the year for the third year in a row, and she is also a finalist for the Honda Sport Award and the AAU James E. Sullivan Award.Catching up with the ??
— Oregon Women's Basketball (@OregonWBB) April 6, 2020
Sabrina Ionescu joined @SportsCenter after winning the @WoodenAward for the second year in a row. #GoDucks | @sabrina_i20 pic.twitter.com/daYPgkyg1b
"It's historical," said head coach Kelly Graves. "To see what she's doing – I don't know how often this has been done where one player sweeps everything. And those that have done it would be considered the icons of the game — and I think you can include her there.
"The only unfortunate part of this is, she doesn't get a chance to validate it with a national championship, like many of the others have. I believe to my core that was going to be the icing on the cake."
Ionescu was stellar once again in 2019-20, leading the Ducks to a 31-2 overall record and a sweep of the Pac-12 regular-season and tournament championships. The only collegiate player ever to reach 2,000 career points (2,562), 1,000 assists (1,091) and 1,000 rebounds (1,040), Ionescu matched her own NCAA single-season record as a senior with eight triple-doubles to give her 26 for her career, more than twice as many as any other player in history.
The Walnut Creek, Calif., native was fourth in the Pac-12 with a team-high 17.5 points per game while grabbing a career-best 8.6 rebounds and dishing out an NCAA-leading 9.1 assists per game. Ionescu also ranked fourth in the nation with a stellar 3.05 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Though her career ended abruptly with the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament due to COVID-19, Ionescu shined in her final games while leading Oregon to the Pac-12 Tournament title. Ionescu was named the tournament's most outstanding player for the second time in her career after nearly averaging a triple-double through three games, headlined by a 31-point performance in the semifinals against Arizona.
The Pac-12 all-time assists leader for both women and men, Ionescu's 1,091 career assists rank fourth in NCAA women's basketball history. She is also Oregon's all-time leader in points, three-pointers (329) and double-figure scoring games (134).
Ionescu is widely expected to be the top overall pick in the upcoming WNBA Draft, which will be held virtually on Friday, April 17, beginning at 5 p.m. PT on ESPN.
Players Mentioned
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