University of Delaware Athletics
Delaware Women's Basketball Standout Elena Delle Donne Among John R. Wooden Award Finalists
3/8/2012 8:29:00 PM | Women's Basketball
LOS ANGELES – All-American Elena Delle Donne of the seventh-ranked University of Delaware women's basketball team has been named a finalist for the John R. Wooden Award announced by The Los Angeles Athletic Club this week.
Selected by the Wooden Award National Advisory Board, the ballot is made up of 15 student-athletes who are the final contenders for women's college basketball's most prestigious honor.
All players have proven to their universities that they are making progress toward graduation and are maintaining at least a cumulative 2.0 GPA, an important component of the Award insisted upon by Coach Wooden.
None of the final 15 candidates embodies the model of the student-athlete more than Delle Donne, who last month was named the Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year for women's basketball. The award is among the highest a collegiate student-athlete can earn during her career.
The Wooden Award All American Teams will be announced the week of the “Elite Eight” round of the NCAA Tournament. Voting begins March 12, and voters have until Monday, March 19 to return their ballots, allowing them to take into consideration performance during the first round of the NCAA Tournament, which makes the Wooden Award unique among college postseason awards.
The 2012 Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Year, Delle Donne currently leads all NCAA Division I players in scoring, averaging 28.3 points. The junior was also named to the CAA All-Defensive team and the CAA All-Academic first team announced at Wednesday's CAA awards banquet.
Delle Donne, Delaware's all-time scoring leader with 2,122 points, helped the Blue Hens to their first-ever national ranking in addition to a perfect 18-0 Colonial Athletic Association regular season.
Delaware (27-1, 18-0 CAA), the top seed in the CAA Tournament, will face No. 8 Old Dominion on Friday, March 9 in the quarterfinals at The Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, Md. at 12 noon.
