Gonzaga Women’s Basketball: More Accolades Please

So far, I’ve published two articles highlighting the honors various Zags have received from the media this preseason and this past week, the team picked up some additional accolades from the national media.

The Naismith College Player of the Year has been awarded since 1969 for men and 1983 for women. As expected by the name of the award, this has been awarded to some of the all-time greats in basketball like Sheryl Swoops, Dawn Staley, Sue Bird, and Breanna Stewart. As such, to even be selected to the watchlist should represent an immense honor about your craft and with the announcement two days ago, a certain Gonzaga player has been recognized for their greatness.

Yvonne is joined by 50 other players including such talents like USC’s Juju Watkins, UConn’s Paige Bueckers, and Iowa’s Lucy Olsen. While this is obvious cool for Yvonne, it’s also cool for the Bulldogs because, as far I as I can tell from the limited data before 2016 on the Naismith website, Ejim’s nomination represents the first time a Gonzaga Women’s basketball player has been received such honors in the preseason.

I’m not super confident in this claim because I could see someone like Courtney Vandersloot receiving such nomination, but even including this possibility, it’s crazy to think we may have one last season to watch someone of that caliber represent the Navy and White. Basketball is obviously a team game so the integration and development of our new players will be important for the squad’s success, but I think it’s fair to say that Ejim’s performance this year will determine their ceiling.

Let’s get excited about this star walking in our midst and get ready for an amazing year.