Iowa's Ava Heiden Making Case for B1G Player of the Year

From 2022-24, the B1G Player of the Year ran through the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Caitlin Clark won the award three-straight years before JuJu Watkins took over in 2025.

Now, the incredible honor could be making it's way back to Iowa City. With only a few games remaining in the regular season, Autumn Johnson placed Ava Heiden in her Top 5.

While Heiden isn't No. 1, she sits at No. 4 with a chance to change everything in their final few games. Knowing Michigan's Olivia Olson sits at No. 2, the Hawkeyes' February 22 showdown with the Wolverines could change everything.

Ava Heiden Eyes B1G Player of the Year

Who would be your Top 5️⃣ candidates for @B1Gwbball Player of the Year? ➡️ @autumnjohnsontv lists her top candidates: pic.twitter.com/C6HrTlYAtN
— Big Ten Women's Basketball (@B1Gwbball) February 17, 2026

Heiden was recently named to the Naismith Late Season List along with being in the Top 10 of the Lisa Leslie list. There are so many things being thrown her way as now she's also in the mix for conference player of the year.

To put things into perspective, Heiden is nowhere near the top of the conference in scoring. In fact, she's No. 12. Her 16.8 points per game simply aren't going to cut it, but it's not like that's the only reason she's in the Top 5.

Coming off a career high 27 point performance, Heiden also grabbed 11 rebounds for her first double-double since November 30. She's currently tied for ninth with her 7.3 rebounds per game while fellow Hawkeye Hannah Stuelke leads the conference with 8.8. Heiden is also tied for 11th with 1.1 blocks per game, but that's far from an impressive statistic.

Looking at Ava Heiden's Competition

Iowa C Ava Heide — Iowa center Ava Heiden (5) takes to the bench during a game against Minnesota on Feb. 5, 2026, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. | Cody Scanlan/The Register / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Johnson currently has UCLA's Lauren Betts at No. 1, which puts things into perspective. Betts is a tick below Heiden with 16.4 points per game but makes up for it by trumping Heiden in every other major statistic. Betts is currently tied for fourth in rebounds and third in blocks.

The aforementioned Olivia Olson is a fellow sophomore who's averaging 19.1 points per game. While scoring is certainly a big factor on the conference's top player of the year, shooting percentage is as well. Heiden is an astonishing 63.6% from the field which helps paint a different light on Olson who is just 47.7%. Then again, the sample size (94 more attempts for Olson) is worth monitoring.

The only other player Heiden currently trails is Ohio State's Jaloni Cambridge. Iowa blew past OSU earlier in the year, 91-70, though Cambridge led all scorers with 26 points. The Buckeyes sophomore guard is shooting 51.5% from the field and is second in the conference with 22.8 points per game.

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