LOS ANGELES – Columbia women's basketball senior guard Abbey Hsu has been named to the Top 50 Watch List for the John R. Wooden Award® presented by Principal®. Chosen by a preseason poll of national college basketball experts, the list is comprised of 50 student-athletes who are the early front-runners for the most prestigious honors in college basketball, the Wooden Award All American Team™ and Most Outstanding Player Award.
Fifty players from around the country were named to the preseason watch list. Hsu and Toledo's Quinesha Lockett are the only two players from mid-major conferences named to the watch list.
The Wooden Award is just the latest watch list for Hsu, who was also selected to the watch list for the 2023-24 Jersey Mike's Naismith Award. Earlier this preseason, she was named to the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award Watch List, recognizing the top shooting guard in women's NCAA Div. I college basketball. Her Hoop Stats later named Hsu to the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award Watch List.
So far this season, Hsu is averaging 22.0 points, 9.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.5 steals through two games. She was named Ivy League Player of the Week for games played November 6-12, earning the eighth such selection of her career. The highlight of her week came on Friday when she broke the Ivy League's career 3-point record with her 288th in a victory over Seton Hall.
Hsu is coming off a season in which she scored 606 points (17.8 points per game) and broke the Ivy League's single-season record for made 3-pointers for the second year in a row – she made 112 last season and 108 the year prior. With 285 triples in her career, Hsu sits just two away from the Ivy League record of 287, currently held by Katie Benzan (Harvard, 2016-20). She was also named a unanimous First Team All-Ivy League selection, First Team All-Met (Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association), a semifinalist for the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award and was selected to USA Basketball's 2023 Women's AmeriCup Team in June.
Entering the 2023-24 season, Hsu ranked No. 2 among active NCAA Div. I player in 3-pointers made per game (3.06) and No. 3 in total treys (285). She has 1,515 career points in three seasons, 177 assists and 114 steals, averaging 16.3 points per game, 41.7 percent from the field and 38.4 percent from the perimeter. Her 1,515 points rank second in program history behind all-time Columbia basketball scoring leader Camille Zimmerman '18CC, who scored 1,973, the most of any men's or women's player in school history.
The Lions take on Duke, ranked No. 22 in the WBCA Coaches Poll, Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. ET.
About the John R. Wooden Award
Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award Program hosts the most prestigious honors in college basketball recognizing The Wooden Award Most Outstanding Player for men and women, The Wooden Award All America Teams for men and women and the annual selection of the Wooden Award Legend of Coaching recipient. Honorees have proven to their university that they meet or exceed the qualifications of the John R. Wooden Award as set forth by Coach Wooden and the Wooden Award Steering Committee, including making progress towards graduation and maintaining at least a 2.0 cumulative GPA. Previous winners include Larry Bird ('79), Michael Jordan ('84), Tim Duncan ('97), Kevin Durant ('07), Candace Parker ('07; '08), Maya Moore ('09; '11), Breanna Stewart ('15; '16), and last year's recipients, Caitlin Clark of Iowa and Zach Edey of Purdue.
Since its inception, the John R. Wooden Award has contributed nearly one million dollars to the universities' general scholarship fund in the names of the Wooden Award All American recipients and has sent more than 1,000 underprivileged children to week-long college basketball camps. Additionally, the John R. Wooden Award partners with the Special Olympics Southern California (SOSC) each year to host the Wooden Award Special Olympics Southern California Basketball Tournament. The day-long tournament brings together Special Olympics athletes and Wooden Award All Americans and coaches in attendance. It is hosted at the Los Angeles Athletic Club during the John R. Wooden Award Weekend.
The Legends of Coaching Award presented by Principal will be presented to University of Kentucky coach John Calipari, along with the Wooden Award Men's and Women's Players of the Year on April 12, 2024. For up-to-date information on the Wooden Award, please go to www.woodenaward.com and follow the Wooden Award on Facebook at www.facebook.com/woodenaward and @WoodenAward on Twitter and Instagram.
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