UConn Women’s Basketball: American Athletic Conference Releases Preseason Poll and Awards

On Monday, the American Athletic Conference released the preseason coaches’ poll and preseason individual awards for the upcoming women’s basketball season. As expected, the UConn women’s basketball team were at the top of the poll and all over the all-conference teams.

The Huskies were voted No. 1 in the conference with 11 first-place votes and 121 points (coaches cannot vote their own teams to finish first). USF, who got the final first-place nod, came in at 110 points.

Additionally, Napheesa Collier was named preseason player of the year after she led the Huskies as well as the conference with 20.4 points per game, a 67.8 field goal percentage and 2.1 blocks per game. She also had the third-highest rebound total in the American, at 9.1 per game. Collier was unanimously named to the all-conference first team.

Gabby Williams was also a unanimous selection to the first team after finishing last season as one of the most complete players in the nation, finishing fourth in the conference in assists (5.1 per game), sixth in rebounds (8.4 per game) and 14th in scoring (14.3 points per game) as well as third in steals (2.7 per game) and fourth in blocks (1.4 per game).

Katie Lou Samuelson rounds out the first-team selections for the Huskies. Last season she finished second in The American with 20.2 points per game as well as in three-point percentage at 42.0 percent.

Kia Nurse was named to the second team. She finished eighth in the conference in assists last season (3.9 per game) and led the league in free-throw percentage (85.5 percent) and three-point percentage (46.2 percent).