Trio of Buckeyes Named to Wooden Award Watch List
11/14/2023 2:30:00 PM | General, Women's Basketball
Ohio State’s three selections is the most by any team in the Big Ten.
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The John R. Wooden Award® presented by Principal® announced the Women's Preseason Top 50 Watch List on Tuesday. Ohio State's Cotie McMahon, Jacy Sheldon and Celeste Taylor were named to the watch list as the Buckeyes earned the most selections of any school in the Big Ten. The trio was also named to the Naismith Preseason Watch List and each was named to a positional award watch list as well.
Chosen by a preseason poll of national college basketball experts, the list is comprised of 50 student athletes who are the early front-runners for the most prestigious honors in college basketball, the Wooden Award All American Team™ and Most Outstanding Player Award.
Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award Program hosts the most prestigious honors in college basketball recognizing The Wooden Award Most Outstanding Player for men and women, The Wooden Award All America Teams for men and women and the annual selection of the Wooden Award Legend of Coaching recipient. Honorees have proven to their university that they meet or exceed the qualifications of the John R. Wooden Award as set forth by Coach Wooden and the Wooden Award Steering Committee, including making progress towards graduation and maintaining at least a 2.0 cumulative GPA. Previous winners include Larry Bird ('79), Michael Jordan ('84), Tim Duncan ('97), Kevin Durant ('07), Candace Parker ('07; '08), Maya Moore ('09; '11), Breanna Stewart ('15; '16), and last year's recipients, Caitlin Clark of Iowa and Zach Edey of Purdue.
McMahon, Sheldon and Taylor have all been leaders on and off the court to start the season. Sheldon led the Buckeyes with 28 points in the season opener against a nationally-ranked USC team, adding five steals. Against IUPUI, McMahon earned her first 20-point game of the season with a team-high 22 points, while Taylor had her first double-figure scoring outing as a Buckeye with 11 points and added four steals and four assists. McMahon was named an AP Preseason All-American Honorable Mention and was joined by Sheldon on the Preseason All-Big Ten team.
McMahon was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year last season and also earned a spot on the All-Big Ten Second Team, All-Big Ten Freshman Team and All-Big Ten Tournament Team as she helped lead Ohio State to its first NCAA Elite Eight appearance in 30 years in 2022-23. The six-time Big Ten Freshman of the Week scored 543 points to rank 30th in program history in single-season points. McMahon averaged 15.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.6 steals in 29.1 minutes per game during her freshman campaign, shooting 51 percent from the floor. She ranked in the top-20 in the Big Ten in 11 categories, including seventh in field goals (201), eighth in points (543), 11th in steals (58) and 20th in rebounding (5.5 rpg). Among Division I freshman, McMahon ranked third in field goals, fourth in field goal percentage, fourth in free throw attempts, fifth in points, sixth in free throws made, ninth in scoring and 12th in steals. She capped an impressive year by scoring in double figures in every postseason game and went on to make her second Team USA appearance this past summer.
Sheldon made an immediate impact for Ohio State when she returned for the postseason in 2022-23 after missing 23 games due to injury throughout the season. Sheldon scored in double figures in all four NCAA Tournament games and made the last-second game-winning shot against North Carolina in the second round. She averaged 13.2 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 3.5 assists per game despite returning in a limited capacity after being injured. The 2022 AP All-American Honorable Mention ranks in the top-25 in program history in 10 different categories heading into the 2023-24 season after helping lead Ohio State to its first NCAA Elite Eight appearance in 30 years last season.
Taylor joined the Buckeye roster this summer after spending the past two seasons at Duke and the previous two seasons at Texas. Taylor is the reigning ACC Defensive Player of the Year and also earned AP All-American Honorable Mention, All-ACC First Team, ACC All-Defensive Team and All-ACC Academic Team following the 2022-23 season. She was also a finalist for the 2022-23 Naismith Women's Defensive Player of the Year. This is Taylor's third time (previously 2021-22 and 2022-23) being on the Ann Meyers-Drysdale Award watch list. The 1,000-point scorer led Duke last season in scoring (11.4 ppg), steals (72) and steals per game (2.2) and was second on the team in assists (2.5 apg) and rebounds (4.8 rpg). Taylor set the Duke NCAA Tournament record with 10 steals against Colorado and became the first player in NCAA women's basketball history to total at least eight points, assists, rebounds and steals since 2000, as well as the only player in history to record at least 10 steals and rebounds.
Ohio State hosts Boston College on Thursday for a 7 p.m. tip. The game will be broadcast on B1G+. View the full Ohio State women's basketball schedule HERE.
Tickets for the 2023-24 season are now on sale. For more information, visit ohiostatebuckeyes.com. Contact the ticket office with any questions at 1-800-GOBUCKS (select option 2) or athletic.tix@osu.edu.
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