The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
6 UConn players named to watch list
Six players from the top-ranked UConn women’s basketball are among 50 players on the watch list for the Naismith Trophy.
Napheesa Collier, a 6-foot-1 junior forward and the American Athletic Conference’s preseason player of the year, is averaging 14 points, 7.3 rebounds and is second on the 6-0 Huskies with 20 assists, 18 steals and eight blocked shots.
Crystal Dangerfield, a 5-foot-5 sophomore guard, is averaging 14 points and 2 steals while registering a team-best 31 assists (with just 10 turnovers).
Kia Nurse, a 6-foot senior guard, had 27 points in Tuesday night’s win over Nevada as she was 8 for 8 from 3-point range. She is averaging 16.2 points with 19 assists. She leads UConn with 17 3-pointers and is ninth among Division I players with a 58.6 3-point shooting percentage.
Katie Lou Samuelson has missed that last 4 1⁄2 games with a left foot injury, but the 6-foot-3 junior wing’s scoring average of 16.5 is tops on the Huskies. She also had five rebounds, three assists and four steals at the time of her injury.
Azura’ Stevens, a 6-foot-6 junior forward/center, leads UConn with an average of 9.5 rebounds and with 10 blocked shots. She is averaging 14.2 points per game with 20 assists and eight steals.
Gabby Williams a 5-foot-11 senior forward, is averaging 12.2 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. She leads the team with 19 steals and a field-goal percentage of 59.3 and also has 19 assists.
Also, 14 other candidates are on teams that UConn will face in the regular season led by the Notre Dame quartet of Marina Mabrey, Arike Ogunbowale, Jessica Shepard and Jackie Young, meaning
that Sunday’s UConnNotre Dame showdown (XL Center, 4 p.m., ESPN) features 10 of the 50 candidates.
The list of candidates will be cut to 30 in February.
Collier, Nurse, Samuelson and Williams were also among 30 players named to the watch list for the Wade Trophy.
Also, UConn signees Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Christyn Williams and Class of 2019 recruiting target Samantha Brunelle were among 20 players named to the USA Today preseason high school All-American team.