Big East Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Year
The Big East ConferenceWomen's BasketballPlayer of the Year award is given to the women's basketball player in the Big East Conference voted as the top performer by the conference coaches. It was first awarded at the end of the 1982–83 season, the first in which the Big East sponsored women's basketball. The current Big East claims the history of the original Big East Conference, which split along football lines in 2013, with three members leaving to join the Atlantic Coast Conference, the seven members that did not field teams in NCAA Division I FBS leaving to form a new Big East Conference, and the remaining FBS schools continuing to operate under the original Big East charter with the new name of American Athletic Conference. The head coaches of the league's teams submit their votes following the end of the regular season and before the conference's tournament in early March. The coaches cannot vote for their own players. The first award went to Debbie Beckford of St. John's in 1983. There have been five multiple winners so far. Rebecca Lobo and Diana Taurasi, both of UConn, each won the award twice in their careers. Shelly Pennefather of Villanova and two UConn players, Kerry Bascom and Maya Moore, were each three-time winners. Uniquely, Moore's wins were not all consecutive, as she lost out to her UConn teammate Tina Charles in 2009–10. So far, voting has resulted in a tie once, in 1984 when both Jennifer Bruce and Kathy Finn won the award. Seven players have also won National Player of the Year awards. Rebecca Lobo, Ruth Riley, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, and Maya Moore are all recipients of the Naismith College Player of the Year award. Shelly Pennefather, Lobo, Jennifer Rizzotti, Bird, Taurasi, and Moore are all recipients of the Wade Trophy. Moore is also a recipient of the John R. Wooden Award. UConn, which joined the current Big East in 2020 after having been a member of The American since the conference split, has the most all-time awards, with 17, and the most individual winners, with 11. Apart from UConn, the only current Big East members with more than one winner are Villanova, with two players who combined to win four awards; DePaul, with three players who each won one award; and Creighton and Marquette, each with two players who claimed one award. Three current Big East members have yet to have a winner—Seton Hall, which was a charter member of the Big East in 1979, and Butler and Xavier, both of which joined the Big East at its 2013 relaunch.
