University of North Carolina Athletics
Breland Named Wooden Award Candidate
August 20, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Aug. 20, 2009
LOS ANGELES --- Richard "Duke" Llewellyn, John R. Wooden Award Chairman and founder, announced the 2009-10 preseason candidates for the Women's Wooden Award today. The list is comprised of 31 student athletes who, based on last year's individual performance and team records, are the front runners for college basketball's most prestigious honor, and North Carolina senior forward Jessica Breland is among the candidates.
In addition to 2009 Wooden Award winner Maya Moore of Connecticut, six more 2009 National Ballot honorees were named as 2009-10 preseason candidates, including Jayne Appel (Stanford), Alysha Clark (Middle Tennessee), Jantel Lavender (Ohio State), Ta`Shia Phillips (Xavier), Andrea Riley (Oklahoma State), and Monica Wright (Virginia).
The breadth of talent across the country is shown by the record number of NCAA Division I conferences (12) highlighted on the list. The Big 10 conference has five candidates, followed by the Big East, ACC, Big 12 and Pac-10 with four apiece, the SEC (3), West Coast (2), America East (1), Atlantic 10 (1), CAA (1), Mountain West (1) and Sun Belt (1).
Connecticut (Moore, Tina Charles), Ohio State (Lavender, Samantha Prahalis), Stanford (Appel, Jeanette Pohlen) and Gonzaga (Heather Bowman, Courtney Vandersloot) are the only schools with two preseason candidates. Prahalis was the only sophomore chosen; the rest of the nominees are juniors or seniors.
In late December, the Wooden Award Committee will release the Midseason Top 20 list, followed in March by the National Ballot, consisting of approximately 15 top players who have proven to their universities that they are also making progress toward graduation and maintaining a cumulative 2.0 GPA. The Women's Wooden Award All-American Team will be announced the week of the "Elite Eight" round during the NCAA Tournament.
The 34th annual Wooden Award ceremony, which will include the announcement of the Men's and Women's Wooden Award, and the presentation of the Wooden Award All-American Teams and the Legends of Coaching Award, will take place the weekend of April 9-11, 2010.
About the John R. Wooden Award
Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award is the most prestigious individual honor in college basketball. The women's category was added in 2004. The Award is bestowed upon the nation's best player at an institution of higher education who has proven to his or her university that he or she is making progress toward graduation and maintaining a cumulative 2.0 GPA. Previous winners include such notables as Larry Bird (`79), Michael Jordan (`84), Tim Duncan (`97), Alana Beard (`06) and Blake Griffin (`09). Candace Parker won the Women's Wooden Award in 2007 and 2008.
Since its inception, the John R. Wooden Award has contributed close to a million dollars to universities' general scholarship fund in the names of the All-American recipients. The Award has also sent more than 1,000 underprivileged children to week-long college basketball camps in the Award's name. Additionally, the John R. Wooden Award partners with Special Olympics Southern California (SOSC) each year to host a day-long basketball tournament. The tournament brings together Special Olympic athletes and the All-Americans in a setting that exemplifies the spirit of competition.
