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March 31, 2004 LOS ANGELES, CA - The John R. Wooden Award Committee today announced the top five finalists named to the first ever Women's Wooden Award All-American team, one of which will be selected as women's college basketball player of the year. The top five Women's Wooden Award finalists, in alphabetical order, are: Duke's Alana Beard, Penn State's Kelly Mazzante, Stanford's Nicole Powell, Connecticut's Diana Taurasi and Purdue's Shereka Wright. The top candidates will be invited to Los Angeles for the presentation of the Inaugural Women's Wooden Award at the California Yacht Club on Friday, April 9. The finalists will also attend the 28th Annual Wooden Award Ceremony, which will air nationally on Saturday, April 10 during a CBS telecast of the "John R. Wooden Award Show Presented by Allstate" live from The Los Angeles Athletic Club at 1 pm EST. "We are delighted to recognize this fantastic group of women for their many remarkable accomplishments this season," said Mike Solum, director of the Wooden Award. "It will be interesting to see which of these five talented players goes down in history as the first woman to take home the Wooden Award trophy." The Big Ten Conference is well represented with two players, Penn State's Mazzante and Purdue's Wright, on the list of All-Americans. Connecticut's Taurasi led the defending national champion Huskies to their record fifth consecutive Final Four while Duke's Alana Beard finished the season as the only female or male student athlete in NCAA history to record 2,500 career points and 400 career steals. Stanford's Powell is the only Pac-10 player to have ever recorded more than one career triple-double, as she holds claim to six of the eight triple-double games in Stanford history.
A panel of over 200 voters comprised of sports media members and women's college basketball experts from around the nation submitted their votes over the past three weeks to determine the final candidates. Voters were also asked to consider each individual player's accomplishments on the court along with her overall character and academic performance, essential components of an outstanding player in the eyes of Coach John Wooden, the Award's namesake.
The top five finalists will receive a contribution from the John R. Wooden Award Scholarship Fund in their name to their university's general scholarship fund. The Wooden Award Scholarship Fund was established in 2002 by Applied Materials and corporate partners through the California Community Foundation (CCF) to honor Coach Wooden's dedication as an educator and mentor. 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). 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 followed by the John R. Wooden Award Banquet. 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.
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