More Stanford PAC-10 Honors (We think)

Okay, so remember how C and R reported that Nneka Ogwumike won the PAC-10 Player of the Year Award? And four Stanford starters, Nnemkadi Ogwumike, Jayne Appel, Kayla Pedersen, and Jeanette Pohlen made the All PAC-10 team and Ros Gold-Onwude made the five-member All-Defensive team? ‘Member? Well, that was the PAC-10 MEDIA awards, as voted on by "Select" members of the media, and no, as far as C and R know, garden-variety bloggers were not invited. So, did that not count as the real thing? We don’t know, but the "Real" PAC-10 Awards were announced today, as voted on by the PAC-10 coaches. Guess what, they are almost identical to the media awards with the notable exception they gave out rookie awards and Joslyn Tinkle got an honorable mention. So then… why have the two? Either have it be all coaches, or have it be coaches and media combined, but don’t have two separate awards that are so very similar. Anyway, that’s C and R’s opinion.

Or, on second thought, why not get the bloggers involved. C and R vote the "Purple and Blue Award" for Jayne’s ankle. Wait, strike that, instead we would hand out an award for "The Most Talked About Ankle in PAC-10 History", winner, Jayne Appel’s. (As of this press time, she will not play in the early rounds of the PAC-10 tourney). Or "The Team with the Most Player Who Cannot Legally Vote?" I think Cal has a couple of 17 year olds. Oregon wins "Most Shots in Seven Seconds or Under". And we want to see more of this team and coach, and we would have voted Paul Westhead Coach of the Year for the remarkable turn around he did with that team. We heard the rap on him was that his team did not finish "High" enough in the wins column to get Coach of the Year Honors.

Okay, here are the coaches’ PAC-10 awards:
All PAC-10 team: Nnemkadi Ogwumike, Jayne Appel, Kayla Pedersen, and Jeanette Pohlen (Ros Gold Onwude received an honorable mention)
All Freshmen Team Honorable mention, Joslyn Tinkle
All Defensive Team: Ros Gold-Onwude (Kayla Pedersen received an honorable mention)

These awards were announced Wednesday. The Pac-10 Player of the Year, Pac-10 Freshman of the Year, Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year and Pac-10 Coach of the Year as voted on by the head coaches will be announced on Thursday, March 11. (!!!)

So today they announced the PAC-10 Individual Awards:
Stanford's Nneka Ogwumike won the PAC-10 Player of the Year
USC’s Gilbreath and Stanford’s Gold-Onwude named PAC-10 Co-Defensive Player of the year.
UCLA’s Nikki Caldwell voted PAC-10 Coach of the Year

Okay, we don’t get this either. Why announce some of the PAC-10 coaches’ awards and save some for another day? We give up! 

Well, congratulations to Nneka for being PAC-10 player of the year, again, and to Ros Gold Onwude for being co-defender of the year. Next year we will just wait until April to announce awards. 

Oh wait, as long as we are talking about awards, our number one recruit who will play Stanford Women’s basketball next year, Chiney Ogwumike, and Nneka’s sister, also won an award. Chiney Ogwumike was named National Player of the Year. As in the whole darn country. She finished her high school career leading her team to a second Class 5A Basketball Championship in three years. 

Chiney has played in the state tournament all four years she has been at her high school, Cypress Fairbanks in Houston, Texas. In the title game this year she had 31 points, 18 rebounds, seven steals and three blocks. She didn’t have a turnover and dominated the game in every way possible. She was also the tournament’s MVP.

Oh boy, can’t wait until next year! Wonder who will win what?

More Stanford Stuff (but Not PAC-10-okay some PAC-10 stuff) at the original C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog