| Cheryl Miller Award | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | the best women's college basketballsmall forward in the United States |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame & Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) |
| First award | 2018 |
| Currently held by | Madison Booker,Texas |
| Website | Cheryl Miller Award |
TheCheryl Miller Award is an award presented annually to the best women's basketballsmall forward in theNational Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)Division I competition. It is named after Hall of FamerCheryl Miller. While at Riverside (CA) Polytechnic High School, Miller set a single game scoring record of 105 points in a game in 1982. She was a four-time All-America, a three-timeNaismith Player of the Year and aWade Trophy winner while accumulating 3,018 career points atUSC from 1982 to 1986. Miller is a 1984 Olympic gold medalist and was named the best college basketball player, both male and female, in 1986 bySports Illustrated.[1]
The Cheryl Miller Award was first presented in 2018, when WBCA and the Naismith Hall, in collaboration with ESPN, incorporated theNancy Lieberman Award, presented since 2000 to the top NCAA women's point guard, into a new set of awards known as the "Naismith Starting Five". All five awards are presented at the WBCA convention (except in 2020, when the convention was not held due to theCOVID-19 pandemic) to players at each of the five traditional basketball positions. These awards parallel a previously existing set of men's basketball positional awards also presented by the Hall. In addition to the Lieberman Award, the other three new awards are:
Winner for each of the Starting Five awards is determined by a selection committee consisting of Hall of Famers, WBCA coaching members, and media, and headed by the award's namesake. Fan voting through the Hall's website is also incorporated into the selection process.
| * | Awarded, in addition, a national Player of the Year award: theNaismith College Player of the Year,Wade Trophy or theJohn R. Wooden Award |
| Player (X) | Denotes the number of times the player has received the Cheryl Miller Award |
| Season | Player | School | Class | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017–18 | Gabby Williams | UConn | Senior | |
| 2018–19 | Bridget Carleton | Iowa State | Senior | [2] |
| 2019–20 | Satou Sabally | Oregon | Junior | [2] |
| 2020–21 | Ashley Joens | Iowa State | Junior | [3] |
| 2021–22 | Ashley Joens (2) | Iowa State | Senior | [4] |
| 2022–23 | Ashley Joens (3) | Iowa State | Graduate | [5] |
| 2023–24 | Madison Booker | Texas | Freshman | |
| 2024-25 |
| School | Winners | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Iowa State | 4 | 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 |
| Oregon | 1 | 2020 |
| Texas | 1 | 2024 |
| UConn | 1 | 2018 |