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The 15 finalists for the 2022 John R. Wooden Award, given to the best player in women’s college basketball, were announced Saturday.
According to ESPN’s Alexa Philippou, a pair of strong candidates in South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark headline the field of finalists.
The full list of finalists is as follows:
- Aliyah Boston, South Carolina
- Caitlin Clark, Iowa
- Shakira Austin, Ole Miss
- Cameron Brink, Stanford
- Elissa Cunane, NC State
- Destanni Henderson, South Carolina
- Naz Hillmon, Michigan
- Rhyne Howard, Kentucky
- Ashley Joens, Iowa State
- Haley Jones, Stanford
- Ayoka Lee, Kansas State
- Aneesah Morrow, DePaul
- Khayla Pointer, LSU
- Angel Reese, Maryland
- NaLyssa Smith, Baylor
The 2022 Wooden Award will be given out in April at a ceremony in Los Angeles.
Of the 15 players named finalists this year, six of them (Boston, Cunane, Hillmon, Howard, Jones and Smith) were also finalists last year.
Boston fell short of beating out UConn’s Paige Bueckers in 2021, but she may be the favorite this time around as the top player for a No. 1-ranked South Carolina team that owns a 28-1 record.
In 29 games this season, Boston is averaging 16.8 points, 12.0 rebounds, 2.7 blocks, 1.9 assists and 1.3 steals as a dominant interior presence for the Gamecocks.
If anyone is going to edge Boston, it may be the dynamic Clark, who has been an offensive dynamo for the 21-7 Hawkeyes.
Over 28 contests, Clark is averaging an NCAA-leading 27.2 points to go along with 8.3 assists, 8.1 rebounds and 1.5 steals. While Clark has better overall numbers than Boston, the voting may come down to how much value is placed on team record.
After winning the Wooden Award last year as a freshman, Bueckers is not among the 15 finalists.
She has played well when healthy with averages of 17.1 points, 5.4 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game, but injuries have limited her to just eight appearances.
Other players aside from Boston and Clark who could find themselves in the mix to win the 2022 Wooden Award are Lee, Smith, Morrow, Hillmon, Howard and Joens, all of whom are averaging at least 20 points per game.
Whoever wins the award, it will mark the first non-UConn or Oregon player to do so since 2018, when South Carolina’s A’ja Wilson took the honors.
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