Oregon’s Ionescu pockets second Wooden Award
Oregon senior guard Sabrina Ionescu won the women’s John R. Wooden Award as the country’s most outstanding player for the second straight year on Monday.
Ionescu, who starred at Miramonte High in Orinda, became the sixth woman to win the award twice, and the fifth to win it in backto-back years. The honor marked a clean sweep of this year’s major individual awards, as she also won her first Naismith Trophy, her first AP player of the year award (the secondever unanimous winner), her second Wade Trophy, her third Pac-12 player of the year award and her third unanimous All-America honors.
The other finalists for the Wooden Award were Ionescu’s teammate, senior forward Ruthy Hebard, Kentucky sophomore guard Rhyne Howard, South Carolina senior guard Tyasha Harris and Baylor senior forward
Lauren Cox.
LSU’s Seimone Augustus (200506), Tennessee’s Candace Parker (2007-08), Baylor’s Brittney Griner (2012-13) and Connecticut’s Breanna Stewart (2015-16) are the other backto-back Wooden winners. UConn’s Maya Moore (2009, 2011) also won the award twice.
Ionescu averaged 17.5 points, a national-best 9.1 assists and 8.6 rebounds in 33 games this season, helping the Ducks win the Pac-12 tournament and finish second in the postseason AP poll, after the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament.
Ionescu also became the first player in NCAA basketball history — men’s or women’s — to reach 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists during a career.
She finished her Oregon career with 2,562 points (18.0 average), 1,091 assists (7.7) and 1,040 rebounds (7.3) across 142 games.