UConn’s Tiffany Hayes was named a third-team AP All-American on Tuesday. One-time Husky recruit Elena Delle Donne was named to rthe first team. Here’s the story from the AP:
Brittney Griner has dominated women’s basketball all season.
Now the 6-foot-8 junior phenom is a unanimous selection to The Associated Press’ All-America team Tuesday, a day after leading the unbeaten Lady Bears to their second Final Four in three seasons.
She was joined on the squad by Stanford’s Nnemkadi Ogwumike, Notre Dame’s Skylar Diggins, Delaware’s Elena Delle Donne and Maryland’s Alyssa Thomas.
“That would be a very strong team,” Griner said. “I feel sorry for anyone who would have to play us.”Griner, who was on the first team for the second straight year, hasn’t taken pity on her opponents. She has the Lady Bears two wins away from becoming the first team in NCAA history to go 40-0.
“I would never have thought it would be like this. It’s amazing,” Griner said. “Sometimes you forget what you’ve done. You don’t sit back and enjoy it as you’re so focused on a goal. It definitely has been a great year so far. I hope it finishes the right way, too.”
Griner has been incredible all season, but raised her game over the last month. She’s averaging 23.4 points, 9.4 rebounds and 5.2 blocks this season. Throw in two incredible dunks in the NCAA tournament and she’s been unstoppable.
Griner and Ogwumike received 200 points and were unanimous choices by the 40-member national media panel that votes in the weekly Top 25. It’s the fifth straight season that there has been at least one unanimous choice. Voting was done before the NCAA tournament.
It’s the first time since 2006 that no Tennessee or Connecticut players were on the first team.
Ogwumike had been on the second team the past two seasons and was thrilled to make the first team this year. Yet she was more excited that her sister Chiney earned second team honors.
“Not a lot of people can say they play with their sister and win an award,” the Stanford senior forward said. “I’m really proud of Chiney. She even has more to grow on as she’s only a sophomore. For her to be one of the top players in the country as a sophomore is remarkable.”
The Ogwumikes became the first sisters to be All-Americans in the same season. In 2009, Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris earned first team honors while her sister was honorable mention. Kelly Miller of Georgia made the first team in 2001 while her sister Coco was honorable mention. It’s never happened on the men’s side, either.
Diggins became the first Notre Dame player to make the first-team since Ruth Riley did it in consecutive years in 2000 and 2001. The junior guard was instrumental in helping the Irish win their first outright Big East regular season championship, averaging 16.6 points and 5.7 assists. Diggins knows that she’d probably have a lot more assists if she was playing with this All-American squad.
“I’d love to be the floor general for that team,” Diggins said. “I’d probably average 20 assists. I can tell you right now, we’d be undefeated, we’d win every game by double digits.”
Delle Donne carried Delaware to unprecedented heights this season. The 6-foot-5 junior led the nation in scoring averaging 28.1 points. She helped the Blue Hens go undefeated in the Colonial Athletic Association, win the conference tournament for the first time and earn their first Top 25 ranking. She capped off the season by getting the Blue Hens their first NCAA tournament victory.
Now she’s the school’s initial first team All-American. She was on the third team two seasons ago.
“This is truly a great honor to be considered among the top women’s basketball players in the country,” Delle Donne said. “I am proud to represent the University of Delaware and I share this honor with my teammates and the coaching staff. Although the season ended earlier than we had hoped, this past year is one that I will always remember.”
Thomas guided Maryland to the ACC tournament championship and was the conference’s player of the year as a sophomore. She also has helped the Terrapins reach the NCAA tournament regional final.
“This is such an honor to be named an AP All-American as a sophomore because there’s so many great players in the country.”
Joining Chiney Ogwumike on the second team were Baylor sophomore Odyssey Sims, Miami senior Shenise Johnnson, Ohio State senior Samantha Prahalis and Wisconsin-Green Bay senior Julie Wotja.
The third-team members: Connecticut senior Tiffany Hayes, Kentucky junior A’dia Mathies, Duke freshman Elizabeth Williams, Tennessee senior Shekinna Stricklen and Miami senior Riquna Williams.
It marked only the second time since the All-America team was first honored in 1995 that no Tennessee or Connecticut player made either the first or second team (2005 and 2006).
The preseason All-America team was Griner, Diggins, Ogwumike, Johnson and Stricklen.
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10 Responses to Tiffany Hayes Named Third-Team AP All-America; Griner, Delle Donne 1st Team
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Hayes made 3rd team AA based on UConn’s reputation. Hayes played 1 great half of basketball against Notre Dame. Hayes was a no show in all the other big games on national TV. Hayes contiues to run into people and fall down. She is not even the best player on UConn.
That’s a silly statement. She is close to the leading scorer on a team that is on the cusp of making the Final Four for the fourth time in her four years at Connecticut. She’s the leader in free throw shooting- by far, she’s the leading 3-point percentage shooter, she’s near the top in rebounds, and she’s started every game of a season that saw UConn beat Stanford, Notre Dame, and about ten other ranked teams. How in the world is that a “no show”? It’s not. It’s a stellar record of leadership on a great team!
Check out UConn’s official Stats for Hayes, especially for the Baylor (L), Notre Dame (L), and St Johns (L).
Got to agree – Tiffany got 3rd team based upon UCONN’s record and reputation. I’d put her maybe 3rd best on this years team and sometimes 10th best.
Kentucky defeats UConn by Double digits. Final margin of victory will not reflect the Wildcats Dominance of the Huskies.
Kentucky will exploit UConn’s to Turnover the ball, creating 20+ turnovers.
Kentucky will exploit UConn’s propensity to stand around, being afraid to shoot open shots, and waiting for someone to lead them.
Kentucky will exploit Auriemma’s season long Stubbornness of using only a 6.5 player rotation. UConn will be dead tired at the end of each half.
Kentucky will exploit Dolson’s lack of fitness and lack of speed. Kentucky will suck the spastic Dolson into foul trouble early and often.
Kentucky will exploit Doty’s loss of speed due to 3 ACLs. Kentucky will exploit Stokes nervousness on offense.
Kentucky will exploit Faris’ inconsistency from the outside, daring her to score 15 points again.
Kentucky will exploit Hayes propensity to play out of control and run into double teams.
Baylor will end up 80-0 and be Crowned the greatest WCBB team ever. The only question is will Mulkey intentionally schedule 11 Cupcakes to start the 2013-14 season.
Nmeka Ogwumike scores 90% of her FG points inside the paint. How does Stanford think Nmeka will score 20+ points in the paint against Griner?
Sims will have at least 5 steals against Stanford.
Fear the Turtle.
And exactly how well did those first eight statements work out for you? Actually a number of them might have been close to correct, you just picked the wrong dog in the fight. Have to wait to find out about the Baylor/Stanford predictions.
LOL, another Troll-Fail of epic, nearly biblical proportions.
Troll theory 101: Predict the end of the world long enough, and you’ll eventually be able to say you were right.
G.V., aren’t you the same tool that predicted Penn State would thrash UCONN?
The lack of national awards will only motivate UConn players more. We play more as a team with 4-5 players in double figures every game. The defense requires all players to work together and they do. This is a team game. For much of the season the starters only played 20-25 minutes, not producing the stats that other players take 35-40 minutes to produce on weaker rosters. We’ll see in the end.
so , when diana , maya or tina was there , they did not play as a team ?
I went to both Notre dame games this year and how did Novasel not make all american, not even on the 2nd or 3rd team. I am a Uconn fan but she is better than a lot of the players named to those teams.