Lincoln – Nebraska junior Rachel Theriot had her name added to another women’s basketball national player-of-the-year watch list on Tuesday, when she was included among 25 players on the Wade Watch list.
The Wade Trophy is the official national player-of-the-year award of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) and is in its 38th season of honoring the country’s top player. In 1993, Nebraska All-American Karen Jennings won the trophy that is named for Lily Margaret Wade and is voted on by the membership of the WBCA.
Theriot, a 6-0 point guard from Middleburg Heights, Ohio, was one of 30 players named to the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 30 on Monday. She was ranked as the No. 13 player in the nation by ESPN heading into this season and was a preseason first-team All-Big Ten selection. She has the Huskers off to a 4-0 start and ranked No. 15 nationally by the Associated Press heading into this Friday’s game at UCLA.
Theriot is averaging 17.0 points, 3.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.5 steals as a junior for the Huskers. Last season, she proved herself as one of the nation’s top young players, earning honorable-mention All-America accolades from the AP after claiming a first-team All-Big Ten award.
In 2013-14, Theriot averaged 14.1 points and 7.1 assists per game while leading the Big Ten with a 2.7-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Her 234 assists were a school record. She guided the Huskers to their first-ever conference tournament title as the Big Ten Tournament MVP, averaging 18.7 points and a tournament-record 10.0 assists per game.
Regarded as “The Heisman of Women’s Basketball,” The Wade Trophy is presented annually to the WBCA NCAA Division I Player of the Year by SHAPE America – the Society of Health and Physical Educators and the WBCA.
The 25-member list is made up of top NCAA Division I student-athletes who best embody the spirit of Lily Margaret Wade according to the following criteria: game and season statistics, leadership, character, effect on their team and overall playing ability.
Here is the list of candidates for the 2015 Wade Trophy in alphabetical order:
| Player | Institution | Position | Year |
| Jillian Alleyne | Oregon | Forward | Junior |
| Rachel Banham | Minnesota | Guard | Senior |
| Brittany Boyd | California | Guard | Senior |
| Crystal Bradford | Central Michigan | Guard | Senior |
| Nina Davis | Baylor | Forward | Sophomore |
| Nneka Enemkpali | Texas | Forward | Senior |
| Bashaara Graves | Tennessee | Forward | Junior |
| Allisha Gray | North Carolina | Guard | Sophomore |
| Reshanda Gray | California | Forward | Senior |
| Dearica Hamby | Wake Forest | Forward | Senior |
| Sara Hammond | Louisville | Forward | Senior |
| Isabelle Harrison | Tennessee | Center | Senior |
| Bria Holmes | West Virginia | Guard | Junior |
| Brittany Hrynko | DePaul | Guard | Senior |
| Samantha Logic | Iowa | Guard | Senior |
| Jewell Loyd | Notre Dame | Guard | Junior |
| Tiffany Mitchell | South Carolina | Guard | Junior |
| Kaleena Mosqueda- Lewis | Connecticut | Forward | Senior |
| Amber Orrange | Stanford | Guard | Senior |
| Kelsey Plum | Washington | Guard | Sophomore |
| Breanna Stewart | Connecticut | Forward | Junior |
| Rachel Theriot | Nebraska | Guard | Junior |
| Courtney Walker | Texas A&M | Guard | Junior |
| Aleighsa Welch | South Carolina | Forward | Senior |
| Elizabeth Williams | Duke | Center | Senior
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