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March 6th, 2004 LOS ANGELES, CA - The John R. Wooden Award Committee today announced the 16 women's college basketball players named to the official voting ballot for the 2004 Wooden Women's Award All-American Team and Player of the Year. The winner will be announced on Thursday, April 8, prior to Saturday's telecast of the "John R. Wooden Award Show Presented by Allstate" live from The Los Angeles Athletic Club on CBS beginning at 1 pm EST. "We are thrilled to announce that one of these 16 players will go down in history as the first woman to receive the Wooden Award," said Mike Solum, director of the Wooden Award. "At this point, a case could be made for several of these women to be crowned player of the year, so it will come down to the end of the season when the elite players separate themselves as frontrunners." A panel of over 200 voters comprised of sports media members and women's college basketball experts from around the nation will have until noon pacific time on Monday, March 29 to cast their votes for both the five-member All-American team and Wooden Award recipient as the most outstanding female collegiate basketball player in the United States. The Wooden Award opts for the March 29 deadline because it allows voters to evaluate players up until the Elite Eight has been determined. The women's national ballot, (see attached for complete list) includes players from seven NCAA conferences, including the Big 12 (5), Big 10 (3), Big East (2), SEC (2), Conference USA (2), ACC (1) and Pac-10 (1). Eleven of the 16 candidates are seniors, while LSU's Seimone Augustus and DePaul's Khara Smith are the only two nominated sophomores on the list. Leading the way with two nominated players apiece are The University of Texas (Heather Schreiber and Stacy Stephens) and Kansas State (Nicole Ohlde and Kendra Wecker).
Now in its 28th year, the John R. Wooden Award is named for the former University of California at Los Angeles coach who won ten national championships during a legendary career, while also garnering a reputation for high moral standards. Among national basketball honors, the Wooden Award is unique in that it considers both character and academic standards when naming its recipient. Each athlete must be making progress toward graduation and must be accredited by his school as maintaining a cumulative 2.0 grade point average. All 16 finalists have met the criteria to be considered on the official ballot.
The 2004 Award ceremony, which will include the presentation of the Wooden Award All-American Team, the inaugural Women's Wooden Award and the presentation of the Legends of Coaching Award to Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery, will be held at The Los Angeles Athletic Club on Saturday, April 10. The All-American Team will be announced on March 31 and the top five women's candidates will be invited to Los Angeles for the Awards ceremony. Each finalist will receive a contribution from the John R. Wooden Award Scholarship Fund in her name to their university's general scholarship fund. The John R. Wooden Award Scholarship Fund was established by Wooden Award sponsor Applied Materials through the California Community Foundation to honor Coach Wooden's dedication as a teacher and educator. Applied Materials distributed $15,000 last year to each university represented by a Wooden Award All-American Team finalist (Kansas, Marquette, Oklahoma, Texas and Xavier) for a total of $75,000. Additional donations to Applied Materials' John R. Wooden Award Scholarship Fund can be made by contacting the scholarship fund through the CCF (www.calfund.org). Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award is the most prestigious individual honor in college basketball. It is bestowed upon the nation's best player at an institution of higher education who has proven to his university that he is making progress toward graduation and maintaining a cumulative 2.00 GPA. Previous winners include such notables as Michael Jordan ('84), Larry Bird ('79), Tim Duncan ('97) and last year's recipient, T.J. Ford ('03). Tabulation for all voting is calculated by Deloitte & Touche. For more information on the John R. Wooden Award, please contact Julia McQueen at 310-578-7050 or via email at mcqueen@formulapr.com, or visit www.woodenaward.com.
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