Brink, VanDerveer Naismith Semifinalists

STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford's Cameron Brink and Tara VanDerveer have been named semifinalists for 2024 Naismith Women's College Player of the Year and Women's College Coach of the Year, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced Thursday.
 
The Atlanta Tipoff Club administers the Naismith Awards, which have become the most prestigious national honors in all of college basketball. Named in honor of Dr. James Naismith, inventor of the game of basketball, the Naismith Trophy recognizes the top Men's and Women's College Basketball Players and Coaches of the Year.
 
Also a semifinalist for Naismith Defensive Player of the Year honors, Brink is the nation's leading active shot blocker with 406 in her career and recently became the 17th Division I player with 400 career rejections. She leads the country in both total blocks (109) and blocks per game (3.52), and is 19 shy of the Pac-12 record (Ruth Hamblin, Oregon State – 425).
 
Brink is third nationally in rebounds per game (12.0) and using College Basketball Reference advanced metrics, she tops all DI players defensive box plus/minus (60.0), total rebound percentage (24.7), defensive rebound percentage (34.5) and block percentage (13.0). Her defensive rating of 69.6 is second.
 
She is the only player in the country averaging 17.0 points, 12.0 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game this season, numbers that have only been put up for an entire season six times by a major conference player since 1999-2000, most recently Oklahoma State's Natasha Mack in 2020-21. Brink is in the midst of one of the most efficient seasons by a major conference player in available records dating back to 2002-03 and currently leads the nation with a PER of 47.08.
 
She had a career-high nine assists to go with 16 points and 12 rebounds in last weekend's Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinal win over Oregon State and currently has 109 blocks and 89 assists this season. Only one other player has had 100 blocks and 100 assists in a single season in available records since 1999-2000. Breanna Stewart did it three times for UConn in 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16.
 
Brink is also the first college player with 500 points, 300 rebounds and 100 blocks in back-to-back seasons since Stewart (2014-16).
 
VanDerveer has led Stanford to a 28-5 record this season, a 15-3 mark in the Pac-12 and the Cardinal's fourth consecutive Pac-12 regular-season title and 27th in the league's 38-year history.
 
No. 4 in the AP Top 25, Stanford is No. 4 in the NET rankings, the NCAA selection committee's primary sorting tool for evaluating teams. It was also projected as a No. 1 seed (No. 3 overall) and first- and second-round tournament host in the NCAA women's basketball selection committee's final reveal of the top 16 overall seeds on Feb. 29. The team will find out its postseason fate on Selection Sunday, March 17.
 
In her 38th season on the bench at Stanford, VanDerveer has accumulated a 1,214-270 record in her 45+ years as a collegiate head coach and an 1,062-219 mark on The Farm. One of four coaches in the history of the sport to win three national titles, her teams have won 20 or more games a record 39 times, including each of the last 23 seasons. VanDerveer has coached a team to 30 wins 17 times.
 
VanDerveer won her 1,000th career game on Feb. 3, 2017, passed Pat Summitt (1,098) to become the winningest coach in women's college basketball history on Dec. 15, 2020, and surpassed Mike Krzyzewski (1,202) to become the winningest coach in NCAA basketball history on Jan. 21, 2024.