The Big East wraps up the regular season for women’s basketball this weekend with a Sunday doubleheader on FS1. At some point between Sunday and Friday, I presume, the league office is going to announce the postseason awards for the year.
That means we have to get out in front of it before they spoil everything and make OUR picks! We’ve got Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year, Sixth Woman of the Year, Coach of the Year, and an all-conference team. If you’ve got issues with my choices, well, that’s what the comments section is for!
Let’s go!
Big East Player of the Year: Aaliyah Edwards, Connecticut
I could have just said “Paige Bueckers” and kept it moving, no one would have questioned me. Bueckers is leading the regular season champions in scoring and she was the preseason POY.
But.... Edwards has been named Big East Player of the Week three times this season, all since the first of the year, which means all three came during league play. The two women who are tied with her for the league lead in POTW awards — Marquette’s Liza Karlen and Villanova’s Lucy Olsen — can’t say that, and on top of that, Olsen’s playing on a team that’s not going to make the NCAA tournament, and Karlen’s team might finish behind Olsen’s in the standings.
Edwards is second on the UConn roster in scoring, just a little bit less than two points a game behind Bueckers, and that makes her third in the Big East behind Olsen. She’s also second in the league in rebounding, trailing VU’s Christina Dalce by less an a rebound per game, and Edwards’ average still makes her a double-double threat every time she steps on the floor.
Is it probably going to be Paige because she’s the most dangerous player in the league on a nightly basis? Probably, I’m not going to yell at any coach that votes for her. But the evidence is there to actually give the trophy to her teammate.
Big East Freshman of the Year: KK Arnold, Connecticut
I want to start this by saying that there’s an argument for Ashlynn Shade, Arnold’s classmate. Both women lead the Big East in Freshman of the Week honors with five each, including a stretch from December 11th to January 22nd where one or the other won the award each week. On top of that, Shade is actually the top scoring freshman in the Big East this season and the only one averaging more than 10 points per game.
But Arnold’s name keeps popping up when you run down the stats in the Big East: 12th in assists, 3rd in steals, 8th in assist-to-turnover ratio. She’s doing just a liiiiiitle bit more than Shade for the Huskies even if both women have been crucial reasons why UConn has won the league by multiple games and have stayed nationally relevant even with all of their injury problems this season. If you want to give it to Shade because you like her game more than Arnold’s, I’m not going to argue with you about it.
Sixth Woman Of The Year: Brianna Scott, Georgetown
Shouts to Her Hoop Stats and their sortable stats here, as that made it very easy to go from team to team in the Big East, sorting for Games Started at the top of every page, and looking at who was good without playing in the starting lineup.
While there are a lot of women playing notable roles off the bench this season, there aren’t a lot of players who 1) didn’t spend a notable amount of time starting this season or 2) have a statistical output that clearly had an impact on the team. I respect anyone who’s playing 15-20 minutes a night but averaging 2 points and 2 rebounds, you’re clearly doing a lot of stuff that has value to your team.... you’re just not going to win this award.
That brings us to Scott, who has played in 26 of GU’s 28 games, and all of them came as a reserve. She’s averaging 21.2 minutes per game, so she’s still playing in half of the game. Scott is averaging 8.8 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.0 assists, and 1.4 blocks per game while shooting over 60% from the field.
If that isn’t the kind of numbers that get you Best Bench Player In The League, I don’t know what does.
Coach of the Year: Geno Auriemma, Connecticut
Two games of Azzi Fudd. Four games of Caroline Ducharme. 13 games of Aubrey Griffin.
UConn won the league by multiple games, clinching the outright title with two games to play.
You wanna argue for Jim Flanery because his Creighton team has been ranked all year and they’re going to finish second by multiple games and that’s awesome? No argument from me. You want to give it to Darnell Haney because he was named interim head coach on October 23rd and he guided a trauma stricken roster to Georgetown’s first 18 win season since 2019 and just the second since 2012 after the death of first year head coach Tasha Butts before she even coached a game for the Hoyas? I’m definitely not going to tell you that you’re wrong.
But Geno was supposed to win, and he almost immediately didn’t have the roster he thought he did, and then it got worse when Griffin blew her knee out, and then he won anyway. That’s coaching, baybay.
All-Big East Team
Paige Bueckers, UConn
Aaliyah Edwards, UConn
Liza Karlen, Marquette
Lucy Olsen, Villanova
Emma Ronsiek, Creighton
Look, just because I thought Aaliyah Edwards should be Player of the Year doesn’t mean I’m keeping Paige Bueckers off the all-conference team. I’m thoughtful, I’m not stupid.
You have to get a Bluejay on this list, and you can do a lot worse than Ronsiek, who is their leading scorer and #6 in the league. She’s also top 15 in the Big East in rebounding and assists, so the diverse skill set is a bonus. Lucy Olsen is the top scorer in the entire league and the only player other than Bueckers to average more than 20 points per game. The entire VU offense is funneled through her, and that looks like it’s going to be good enough to get them to finish tied for third in the league. I went with Karlen for the fifth and final spot because Marquette is objectively having a better season than St. John’s overall, and so I can’t get there to put Unique Drake on this five woman list. Karlen and Edwards are the only two women in the league who are top six in both scoring and rebounding, so it feels like she’s the better pick than Drake, especially since Karlen has been Big East Player of the Week three times.
