Tag: Dawn Staley Award

Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo wins Dawn Staley Award as top guard

Add yet another honor for the freshman phenom.

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] began her collegiate career when Notre Dame faced South Carolina in Paris to open this past season. That meant she got to make her debut with Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley watching from the opposite sideline. She aced her first exam, leading all scorers with 31 points in an Irish loss. Now, Staley gets to honor her.

Hidalgo has been named the winner of this year’s Dawn Staley Award, given to the country’s top guard. She unseats Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, who had won it each of the previous three seasons. She is the second Irish player to win the award after [autotag]Skylar Diggins[/autotag], who was the first honoree in 2013.

Staley, whose Gamecocks are in the Final Four trying to complete a perfect season, said the following about Hidalgo:

“The Dawn Staley Award goes to the player who demonstrates exceptional skills, leadership, and performance at the guard position. Hannah Hidalgo’s court vision, passing ability, ball-handling and ability to create scoring opportunities for herself and her teammates combined with her relentless defense is unmatched. She is the embodiment of a two-way force on the basketball court and the essence of what the award represents. In a season where there are several deserving candidates Hannah has separated herself from the group.“

Hidalgo will receive her award during a virtual ceremony April 11, and it’s great to know that she still is collecting hardware even with the Irish’s season over. That trophy case is gonna be awfully crowded by the time she’s done in South Bend.

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Iowa’s Caitlin Clark ‘super honored’ to repeat as Dawn Staley Award winner

Iowa point guard Caitlin Clark reacted to becoming the first repeat Dawn Staley Award winner.

Iowa point guard Caitlin Clark was announced as the winner of the Dawn Staley Award last week. The honor is bestowed upon the most outstanding college guard in the country.

The West Des Moines, Iowa, native made history on the court this season as Clark led the nation in both scoring average and assists per game. Clark averaged 27 points and eight assists per game. She finished with 863 points and 257 assists on the season. As a result, Clark made history in women’s college basketball, too.

Clark became the first two-time winner and the first repeat winner of the Dawn Staley Award.

“Every winner has been a special player and a special person, but this year’s award is unique. In Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, we have the first ever two-time winner and Caitlin absolutely deserves it. A dynamic offensive player with shooting range the likes of which our game has never seen, Caitlin led the nation in both scoring and assists this season.

“She’s an absolute force, someone who is quite literally changing the way basketball is being played. She’s a winner, leading her team to the Big 10 Tournament Championship and a shared regular season title. And she’s also a terrific person, the type of player and the type of woman we can be proud to have as an ambassador for our game for years to come,” Staley said in a statement.

On Thursday, Clark was recognized in a virtual ceremony where Staley told her that she “transcends the sport.”

 

“Well, thank you coach Staley. I appreciate your kind words and thank you to the Phoenix Club of Philadelphia for putting this on and having me. I think our game is full of a lot of great guards. A lot of great posts, too, but I think there’s just so many tremendous guards all across the country and I think that’s really just great for our game in general. You can really see that it’s growing. I’m super honored to win this award once, but to win it twice in back to back years is super, super special.

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my coaches, my teammates. I love the University of Iowa. I love playing for coach (Lisa) Bluder, and, you know, we did a lot of really great things this year. It obviously didn’t end how we wanted it to, but, you know, I think there’s still a lot to be proud of. Big Ten champions twice. Hasn’t been done in the history of our program, so still a lot to be proud of but we want to come back, work harder and get even further, so that’ll be our goal. Thank you to my family. They supported me every step of the way,” Clark said during the virtual ceremony.

Clark will return for her junior season alongside star forward Monika Czinano. Iowa’s season ended in a second-round NCAA Tournament loss versus Creighton inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. With that duo back, the Hawkeyes will be one of the trendy picks to defend their Big Ten championships from this past season. In ESPN’s way-too-early top 25, Iowa checked in at No. 6.

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