WATCH PRESS CONFERENCE
INTERVIEW WITH SKYLAR DIGGINS
INTERVIEW WITH KIM BARNES ARICO
INTERVIEW WITH KALEENA MOSQUEDA-LEWIS

HARTFORD, CONN. - Junior guard Skylar Diggins of Notre Dame has earned BIG EAST Player of the Year honors. Diggins, who also was the BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year, helped lead her team to 15 league wins this season and an overall record of 28-2. Diggins helped lead the Irish to their first outright BIG EAST regular-season title and the No. 1 seed in the 2012 BIG EAST Championship presented by American Eagle Outfitters. She averaged 17.4 points per game and 5.8 assists in all games and 17.8 ppg in conference play. Diggins is 14th in the nation in assists per game (5.9 apg) and 23rd in field goal percentage (.528). Her assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.26 leads the conference and ranks 13th nationally.

Freshman forward Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis of Connecticut was named BIG EAST Freshman of the Year and BIG EAST Sixth Man of the Year. She is the first player to receive both honors since the Sixth Man award was instituted in 2007-08. Mosqueda-Lewis was named BIG EAST Freshman of the Week eight times during the 2011-12 season and earned honors as the BIG EAST Preseason Freshman of the Year in a vote by the league’s head coaches. Mosqueda-Lewis ranks second on the team with 14.4 points per game heading into the postseason. She made 75 3-pointers, grabbed 5.1 rebounds per game and added 17 blocks and 40 steals.

Kim Barnes Arico coached St. John’s to a 21-8 record this season, including a 13-3 mark in league action. The 13 BIG EAST wins broke the record for league victories in program history. The Red Storm were picked to finish seventh in the BIG EAST Preseason Coaches’ poll, but rocketed to a No. 2 seed after tying with Connecticut and gaining the edge over the Huskies in a head-to-head tiebreaker due to a 57-56 win on Feb. 18. The No. 2 seed is the highest for the Red Storm under Barnes Arico. St. John’s enters the postseason as winners of its last eight games and 10 of the last 11. Barnes Arico is in her 10th season at St. John’s and owns a 173-132 record with the Red Storm.