UCLA Women's Basketball: Why Another Bruins Star Deserves Big Midseason Honor
Sophomore UCLA Bruins transfer center Lauren Betts has earned a major midseason honor.
As we relayed Friday, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) has listed the 6'7" big among the top 10 candidates for the 2024 Lisa Leslie Award, an honor reserved for the best center in college. Leslie of course was a Hall of Fame USC Trojans center who went on to lead an early WNBA dynasty in the Los Angeles Sparks.
Through 17 contests for the 16-2 Bruins (she was a late scratch for last night's 62-44 win over the Washington Huskies due to "an undisclosed medical reason"), Betts is averaging 15.4 points on 68.3% field goal shooting, the second highest such conversion rate in the nation. She's also pulling down 8.6 rebounds, swatting away 2.1 blocks, and dishing out 0.6 dimes. Betts is the big new ingredient that, along with internal growth, seems to have elevated UCLA from a frisky semi-contender, as it was last season, to a legitimate championship contender. The Bruins are currently ranked as the No. 2-best club in the nation, and considered to have a real shot at winning it all. The advent of Betts' addition from Stanford has revitalized the program's post presence on both ends, and speaks to just how imperative she is at one of the most difficult positions on the hardwood.
Betts isn't the only Bruin on this elite squad to be shortlisted as one of the best players at her position. Sophomore point guard Kiki Rice was named among the top 10 midseason finalists for the Nancy Liberman Award, while fifth-year shooting guard Charisma Osborne is under consideration for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award.
A Naismith Hall of Fame selection committee (which will include head coaches, journalists, Hall of Fame inductees, and "sports information directors," according to UCLA Communications) and Leslie will pick the winner of this year's award, from a group of five culled finalists in March.