STANFORD, Calif. – The league's regular-season champion for the 27th time, Stanford collected a bevy of high-level awards when Pac-12 postseason honors voted on by the conference's head coaches were announced on Tuesday morning.
Cameron Brink was voted Pac-12 Player and Defensive Player of the Year, Kiki Iriafen was awarded Pac-12 Most Improved Player of the Year honors, and Tara VanDerveer was chosen by her peers as the John R. Wooden Coach of the Year to highlight Stanford's awardees. Brink and Iriafen were also named to the 15-person All-Pac-12 team and Brink was one of five on the All-Defensive team. Hannah Jump and Talana Lepolo were selected All-Pac-12 honorable mention, while Nunu Agara and Courtney Ogden received Pac-12 All-Freshman honorable mention accolades.
Brink is Stanford's 20th Pac-12 Player of the Year all-time, a total which is more than the rest of the league combined. She is the Cardinal's eighth Defensive Player of the Year winner since the award began in 2008 and the second in conference history to win it in three consecutive seasons, joining Chiney Ogwumike (2012-14). Brink is only the third in Pac-12 history to sweep the league's Player and Defensive Player of the Year awards, along with Ogwumike (2013, 2014) and Arizona's Aari McDonald (2021).
On Monday, Brink won her fifth Pac-12 Player of the Week honor of the season following a weekend in which she averaged 21.5 points and 20.5 rebounds in a pair of road victories over No. 11 Oregon State and Oregon. Her 12 career weekly honors will go down as the second most all-time, trailing only Chiney Ogwumike's 18. 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.
Per College Basketball Reference, Brink is in the midst of the most efficient season by a major conference player in available records dating back to 2002-03. She currently leads the nation with a PER of 49.24. Only one player has ever been better, Elena Delle Donne with Delaware in 2011-12 (56.58) and 2012-13 (53.60). She is first nationally in blocks per game (3.57) and fifth in rebounds per game (12.0), does all her damage in a mere 25.0 minutes per game, and is the only the second player in Pac-12 history with 500 points (502), 300 rebounds (335) and 100 blocks (100) in a season (Stefanie Kasperski – Oregon – 1988-89).
Arguably the country's most improved player, Iriafen is having an All-America caliber season in her junior campaign. Third in the league in scoring (18.5) and rebounding (10.9), Iriafen is one of five major conference players in the country averaging 18.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per game and in seven games against the AP Top 25 this season is averaging 20.3 points and 12.3 rebounds. She one of three players in the country averaging 20+ points and 10+ rebounds against the AP Top 25.
Iriafen has taken a massive leap as a junior and after averaging 6.7 points and 3.8 rebounds as a sophomore, she's putting up 18.5 points (+11.8) and 10.9 rebounds (+7.1) per game this season. Currently, she has the fourth-best year-over-year improvement in the country in scoring average and is first in rebounding average. Since 1999-2000, Erica McCall has the largest increases at Stanford, going from 5.6 points per game as a sophomore to 14.9 as a junior (+9.3) and from 5.4 rebounds per game to 9.4 (+4.0).
Among a number of memorable performances this season, Iriafen scored a career-high 36 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in a 65-56 victory over Oregon State on Jan. 21, Tara VanDerveer's record 1,203rd, to become the first Cardinal since Chiney Ogwumike in 2014 with at least 35 points and 10 boards in a game. From Jan. 12-26, she posted a double-double in five consecutive games, the longest streak for the Cardinal since Ogwumike did it in six in a row in 2013-14.
A finalist for Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year, the matriarch of Pac-12 women's basketball is now an 18-time winner of the John R. Wooden Pac-12 Coach of the Year award. She has led Stanford to a 26-4 record this season, a 15-3 mark in the Pac-12, and the program's fourth consecutive Pac-12 title and 27th in the league's 38-year history.
No. 2 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 Cardinal leads the country with eight wins against the NET Top 25.
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.
Third in the league in 3-pointers made (66), Hannah Jump is 15th among active players in career 3-point percentage (.408). She made her 300th career 3-pointer on Nov. 26 against UAlbany and broke Kiana Williams' previous school record (311) on Dec. 20 against UC Davis. Now at 349, she is 25 away from breaking the Pac-12 record despite playing 800 fewer minutes than No. 1. On Saturday at Oregon, Jump played in her 161st career game for the Cardinal to pass Anna Wilson and become the program's all-time leader in games played.
Lepolo is sixth in the Pac-12 in assists per game (4.14), fifth in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.27) and 14th in 3-point percentage (.387). She's made 45.8 percent from deep in conference games (22-of-48), the fourth-best mark in the league. Lepolo scored a career-high 20 points, with six made 3-pointers and six assists on Dec. 29 at California to become the first Stanford player with six made triples and six assists in a single game since Jeanette Pohlen on Feb. 18, 2010 against Oregon.
Stanford's sixth-leading scorer (6.2) and fifth-leading rebound (3.3), Nunu Agara is eighth among Pac-12 freshmen in scoring and fourth in rebounding. She scored 18 points against Hawai'i on Nov. 8, the most by a Stanford freshman in a season opener since Candice Wiggins had 24 in a 63-57 win at Utah on Nov. 19, 2004.
Courtney Ogden scored a season-high 13 points at Gonzaga on Dec. 3 and was a catalyst at Washington on Feb. 9, scoring nine of her 11 after halftime in a 63-59 overtime victory.
Stanford, the top seed in the upcoming Pac-12 Tournament, has a bye into the quarterfinals and will play the winner of No. 8 California and No. 9 Washington State on Thursday, March 7 at 2:30 p.m.
