LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The Los Angeles Athletic Club, which organizes the John R. Wooden Award, has announced its Women’s Preseason Top 30 list and five BIG EAST players were selected. UConn senior Maya Moore, who won the award in 2009, is among the picks. She is joined by junior teammate Tiffany Hayes, Notre Dame sophomore Skylar Diggins, Georgetown sophomore Sugar Rodgers and DePaul senior Deirdre Naughton.
 
The women’s list is comprised of 30 student-athletes who, based on last year’s individual performance and team records, are the early frontrunners for college basketball’s most prestigious honor.
 
Connecticut’s Maya Moore, the 2009 Wooden Award winner and a 2008 and 2010 Wooden All American, returns to lead her team as a senior. She is looking to become only the second four-time Wooden All American pick after averaging 18.9 points and 8.3 rebounds a year ago for the undefeated Huskies.
 
Transfers, freshmen and medical redshirts are not eligible for the preseason list. These players and others who excel throughout the season will be evaluated and considered for December’s Midseason list and the official voting ballot released in March. The National Ballot consists of approximately 20 top players who have proven to their universities that they are also making progress toward graduation and maintaining at least a cumulative 2.0 GPA.  The Wooden Award All American Team, consisting of the nation’s top five players, will be announced the week of the “Elite Eight” round of the NCAA Tournament.
 
The 35th annual Wooden Award ceremony will take place the weekend of April 8-10, 2011. The ceremony will include the announcement of the Men’s and Women’s Wooden Award winners, a special tribute to Coach Wooden and Wooden Award founder Duke Llewellyn, and the presentation of the Wooden Award All American Teams and the Legends of Coaching Award.
 
Six schools, all perennial top programs at the national level, had two players chosen to the Preseason List, including UConn: (Moore, Tiffany Hayes).
 
The ACC and BIG EAST each had five players named to the preseason Top 30. Only four sophomores made the list, two hailing from the BIG EAST. Georgetown’s Sugar Rodgers and Skylar Diggins of Notre Dame lead the second-year players, joined by Baylor’s Brittney Griner, Delaware’s Elena Delle Donne.