UCLA Women's Basketball Guard Charisma Osborne Named Wooden Award Candidate

With nonconference play cut short and wrapped up, the Bruins still boast one contender for the top honor in the nation.

UCLA women's basketball (5-3) guard Charisma Osborne was named a midseason candidate for the John R. Wooden Award, the trophy named after the historic Bruin coach given to the top men's and women's players each year. There were 25 players named to the list, and Osborne is one of three Pac-12 players to make the cut.

Osborne is averaging 19.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.3 steals per game, albeit with a relatively small sample size due to a string of recent COVID-19 cancelations.

𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝟐𝟓 🏀@CharismaOsborne has been named a midseason candidate for the @WoodenAward! She’s averaging a career-high 19.6 points per game! #GoBruins | 🐻💙💛 | #ELITE pic.twitter.com/6puVPzbFkx
— UCLA Women's Basketball (@UCLAWBB) January 5, 2022

The Bruins have not played a game since Dec. 11 after getting caught in health and safety protocols, and even their next contest against Utah was called off with the Utes now facing down the virus. As a result, Osborne has only played seven games – missing one with a potentially scary knee injury that she returned from just days later.

Across the first two games of the season, Osborne was averaging 4.5 turnovers per game and had a negative assist-to-turnover ratio. In her five appearances since, though, she is averaging 1.4 turnovers per game and boasts an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2-to-1.

Osborne's ability to put the ball in the basket has been the constant all year long, though, as she has broken 15 points in all but one of her outings. UCLA's next four leading scorers have all had off nights where they finished in single digits, but not Osborne, who has the green light to fire away from anywhere on the court.

The further away she's shooting from, the better Osborne's numbers look. The guard is shooting 34.0% on 2-point attempts, but she is hitting 3s at a 40.7% clip while taking more 3s than 2s on the year. Osborne is also shooting 82.9% from the free throw line.

Osborne leads the Pac-12 in 3-pointers made and attempted per game while ranking second in the conference in points per game and second in free throw makes and attempts per game.

Back in the 2017-2018 season, Jordin Canada and Monique Billings were on the midseason watch list for the Wooden Award. The following two seasons, no Bruin made it this far in the process, but Michaela Onyenwere was on the final ballot last March before going in the first round of the WNBA Draft and ultimately winning the league's rookie of the year award.

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