UConn Women’s Basketball Cleans Up American Athletic Conference Year-End Awards

The American Athletic Conference announced their year end award winners Friday morning and the UConn women’s basketball team came home with plenty of hardware.

Napheesa Collier was named the conference Player of the Year after leading the conference with 20.8 points per game and shooting 64 percent from the floor in AAC play. She also averaged 9.8 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game, both which rank second in the conference. Collier was also named Defensive Player of the Year, becoming the first player in AAC history to win both awards. The senior previously won co-AAC Player of the Year as a sophomore in 2016-17.

Collier and Katie Lou Samuelson were both unanimous selections to First Team All-Conference. Samuelson ranked third in the conference for both points per game (17.9) and three-point percentage (37.0) during AAC play. Crystal Dangerfield also joined the seniors on the First Team after leading the conference with 7.5 assists per game, while Megan Walked earned Third-Team All-Conference honors.

Rounding out the awards for the Huskies starting lineup, Christyn Williams was named Freshman of the Year. She averaged 8.3 points and 2.2 assists per game during conference play. On the season, she has shot 49.2 percent from the floor which ranks sixth among all AAC players. Williams was also unanimously selected to the All-Freshman Team.

Additionally, Geno Auriemma was awarded the Coach of the Year after leading the Huskies to another undefeated season in the conference where they are now 117-0. UConn will look to extend that undefeated conference record this weekend, as they play in the AAC Tournament starting with the quarterfinals on Saturday at 2 p.m.