Plum, Auriemma named AP Player, Coach of Year

Kelsey Plum had a historic season for Washington while Geno Auriemma did one of his best coaching jobs at UConn.

Both were overwhelming choices as The Associated Press women’s basketball Player and Coach of the Year in awards announced Thursday.

Plum broke the career NCAA scoring mark, topping Jackie Stiles’ 16-yearold record in style with a 57-point effort on her senior night.

“If you had told me that all this stuff would have happened to me personally, I would have laughed at you,” Plum said. “Not the sense that I didn’t believe in myself or anything like that. But it’s not something that you think about. I’m the all-time leading scorer in college basketball and it’s something I never dreamed about.”

Auriemma did laugh before the season at the notion his Huskies, who lost three All-Americans to graduation, would be undefeated this year.

He thought there was no way that the team’s 75-game winning streak would continue that much longer. Not with a schedule filled with top teams.

Yet UConn met every challenge and enter the Final Four without a loss, winners of 111 straight games.

Plum received 30 of the 33 votes from the national media panel that selects the weekly Top 25. A’ja Wilson of South Carolina, Gabby Williams and Katie Lou Samuelson of UConn each received a vote.

The voting was done before the start of the NCAA Tournament. Auriemma garnered 26 of the votes for coach of the year. Oregon State’s Scott Rueck was second with three while Drake’s Jennie Baranczyk received two. Duke’s Joanne P. McCallie and Mississippi State’s Vic Schaefer each received one vote.