STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford senior Cameron Brink was named to the John R. Wooden Award Women's Late Season Top 20, the Los Angeles Athletic Club announced Tuesday.
The list is comprised of student-athletes who are front-runners for the sport's most prestigious honor, based on their performances during the first three months of the 2023-24 season. Players not chosen to this late-season list are still eligible for the Wooden Award National Ballot, which consists of the country's top 15 players. The Wooden Award All American Team, consisting of the nation's top five players, will be announced the week of the Elite Eight. The winner of the 2024 John R. Wooden Award will be presented following the NCAA Tournament in April.
Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award is the most prestigious individual honor in college basketball. Previous winners include such notables as Larry Bird ('79), Michael Jordan ('84), Tim Duncan ('97), Candace Parker ('07 and '08), Kevin Durant ('09) and Maya Moore of Connecticut ('09 and '11). Stanford's Chiney Ogwumike won the 2014 Wooden Award.
A Wooden Award All-American a season ago, Brink remains on a laundry of watch lists this year in addition to the Wooden Award, including the Naismith Trophy, Wade Trophy and Lisa Leslie Award, and has backed up that recognition with her play.
A four-time Pac-12 Player of the Week, Brink is averaging 17.5 points, 11.4 rebounds and 3.15 blocks per game, the only player in the country with those numbers. Using College Basketball Reference advanced metrics, Brink leads the country in PER (53.8), win shares per 40 minutes (.534), box plus/minus (27.3), defensive rating (65.6), total rebound percentage (26.8) and block percentage (13.2). Her 11 career Pac-12 Player of the Week awards are tied with Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu for the second-most all-time.
Brink, who has yet to play 30 minutes in any game this season, does all her damage in a mere 22.2 minutes per game. Among the 89 DI players averaging 17.0 points per game (minimum nine games), Stanford's All-American is 89th in minutes per game.
The nation's leading active shot blocker with 360 in her career, Brink is looking to become the 17th Division I player with 400 career rejections. She has 28 career games with five or more blocks, including four this season, which leads the nation since 2020-21.
Brink entered last season shooting just 62.7 percent in her career from the free throw line, but shot 84.8 percent (156-of-184) as a junior and ended the year with a program-record 48-straight makes. After going 25-of-25 at the line to start this season, her first miss in 284 days came on the second of two free throws at 9:26 in the second quarter of a 74-55 win over Belmont on Nov. 22.
Brink's streak of 73 consecutive free throws made is the second-longest in DI history. She is currently fourth in the NCAA this season in free throw percentage at 93.3 percent (98-of-105). Elena Delle Donne (6-foot-5) is the only DI player 6-foot-4 or taller to shoot better than 90 percent from the line in a season since 1999-2000.
Brink and the No. 4 Cardinal have a big weekend coming up in Maples Pavilion, hosting No. 15 USC on Friday at 7 p.m. and No. 7 UCLA on Sunday at 1 p.m.