The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Walker named AAC Player of the Year
STORRS — Remember those lofty expectations put on Megan Walker in the preseason?
It’s safe to say they’ve been matched.
On Friday, Walker was rewarded for her big season with the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year award in a vote by league coaches.
Walker established herself as UConn’s go-to player as a junior, averaging a conference-best 19.5 points and 8.6 rebounds. She’s the eighth Husky to win the award in seven seasons, following Breanna Stewart (2014-16), Napheesa Collier (2017 and 2019) and Katie Lou Samuelson (2017-18).
“It’s pretty cool to be the best player in the conference,” Walker said Friday before practice. “It’s cool to have your teammates, coaches, your family and friends, proud of you.”
Meanwhile, Geno Au
riemma repeated as Coach of the Year, winning the award for the sixth time in the AAC and 16th time overall.
UConn, which went 26-3 (16-0 in AAC) and won its seventh straight regular season title, will play Temple in the AAC quarterfinals on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville. The Huskies are 136-0 all-time in league play.
This is the seventh and final season in the AAC for the Huskies, who will rejoin the Big East this summer.
“We worked really, really hard this year,” Auriemma said of himself and his staff. “Whether or not that should be the reason why you win as a coaching staff, I think it’s more you win every game, you go undefeated, nobody really, really surprises in your league.”
He added: “Any time the people that you play against, the coaches that you coach against, vote and think that you did the best job of anybody else, that means something."
Walker, a four-time AAC Player of the Week, leads the league in 3-point shooting (45. 1 percent) and defensive rebounding (6.9 per game) and is second in field goal percentage (48.3) and third in free-throw percentage (82.1). The 6-foot-1 forward has nine double-doubles and 16 20-point games.
When asked about her honor, Auriemma credited Walker for rededicating herself to the game.
“She stopped blaming other factors for her not being what she wanted to be and took matters into her own hands,” Auriemma said. “She said, ‘OK, this is what I’ve done my first two
years, and this is what I want to accomplish now. So what am I going to do about it? I’m going to get in better shape, take better care of myself, practice harder, and I’m going to become more of the player that I need to be to help our team be successful.’ She went about and did that.”
Senior Crystal Dangerfield, the league’s Preseason Co-Player of the Year, joined Walker as a unanimous selection on the AAC First Team. UConn’s Christyn Williams was also selected, along with UCF’s Kay Kay Wright, Cincinnati’s Ilmar’l Thomas and Temple’s Mia Davis.
Dangerfield is averaging 14.8 points, 3.4 rebounds and a team-high 4.1 assists. Williams, a sophomore, is third on the team in scoring (14.4) and tied for third in rebounding (5.0).
Teammate Olivia NelsonOdoda was named to the Second Team while Anna Makurat was a unanimous choice for the All-Freshman Team, along with East Carolina’s Taniyah Thompson, a Hamden native.
“It means a lot,” said Thompson, who averaged 13.7 points. “All the hard work in the offseason, working hard during the season, it means a lot that it’s starting to pay off.”
Elena Tsineke of South Florida was voted the league’s top freshman after averaging 12.4 points per game. East Carolina’s Lashonda Monk received Defensive Player of the Year, the first non-UConn player to do so. Monk ranks third in the country in steals with 121.