STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford senior Alanna Smith is one of 20 players on the watch list for the 2019 Katrina McClain Award, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced Thursday. The annual award in its second year recognizes the top power forward in women's college basketball.
The selection committee is composed of top women's college basketball personnel including media members, head coaches, sports information directors and Hall of Famers. By mid-February, the watch list of 20 players will be narrowed to 10. In March, five finalists will be presented to Ms. McClain-Pittman and the Hall of Fame's selection committee. Fans will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite finalist at www.hoophallawards.com.
The winner of the 2019 Katrina McClain Award will be revealed on an ESPN platform during the 2019 Women's Final Four in Tampa, Florida.
An All-Pac-12 performer in 2017-18, Smith is Stanford's leading returning scorer and rebounder. She started all 35 games as a junior and averaged 13.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.77 blocks in 28.4 minutes. Smith finished eighth in the league with seven double-doubles and became the Cardinal's 40th 1,000-point scorer (1,004) in the season's final game against No. 3 Louisville.
This summer she became the sixth Stanford player to appear in a FIBA World Cup when she won silver with Australia at the tournament in Tenerife, Spain. One of just a handful of collegians at the event, Smith averaged 6.3 points and 2.3 rebounds in six games, which included a team-high 10 points in the championship against the United States. It was the 22-year-old's second go-around with her country's Senior Women's National Team. She made her debut and won silver at last summer's FIBA Asia Cup in Bangalore, India and was one of two Australian players to score in double figures at that tournament, averaging 10.8 points on 58.3 percent shooting and 5.3 rebounds.
Smith and the Cardinal begin their regular season at home on Wednesday, Nov. 7 against UC Davis (7 p.m.). Season tickets, single-game tickets, three-game and six-game mini plans and group tickets (15 or more) for all dates on the 2018-19 calendar are on sale now by visiting gostanford.com/wbbtickets or calling 800-STANFORD.
In addition to its television broadcast schedule, every Cardinal game this upcoming season will again be carried via GoStanford.com's audio stream with Kevin Danna and Tim Swartz splitting play-by-play duties.