McDermott named to the 2024 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award watch list
10/25/2023 11:17:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Junior guard Maya McDermott was selected as one of 25 mid-major women’s basketball athletes for the preseason player of the year watchlist.
HOPEWELL, N.J. --- UNI's Maya McDermott has been named one of 25 players to the 2024 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award watchlist, as announced by Her Hoop Stats.com on Wednesday. This year's watch list includes representatives from 23 teams and 16 conferences.
 McDermott, a Johnston, Iowa native averaged 14.7 points last season while also tallying 2.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game during the 2022-23 season. Named to the Missouri Valley Conference's (MVC) Preseason First Team this week after Second Team honors last year, she also earned both MVC Honor Roll distinction as well as College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District honors. McDermott notched single-game career-highs in points (23 vs. Saint Louis), field goals made (8 vs. Tulane), three-point shots made (5 vs. Colorado State), made free throws (11 at Southern Illinois) and rebounds (7 at Illinois State).
McDermott and the Panthers will host La Crosse in a preseason exhibition on Monday, Oct. 30 at 6 p.m. CT inside the McLeod Center. UNI will tip off its 2023-24 regular season on Nov. 6, hosting Green Bay at 6 p.m. CT.
ABOUT THE AWARD
To be eligible for this award, players must compete in one of the 26 conferences deemed to be "mid-major." The following conferences are considered high-major for the purposes of this award, and thus ineligible: ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-12, and SEC. In January the 15-player midseason watch list will be announced, followed by 10 semifinalists announced in February. The five finalists will be announced in early March, with the winner announced around the Final Four. The list is fluid and players may play their way on or off the list over the course of the season.
ÂAbout Becky Hammon
Hammon was a three-time All-American during her career at Colorado State and led the Rams to the Sweet 16 in 1999, the program's only appearance to date. She was signed by the New York Liberty in 1999 and traded to the San Antonio Stars in 2007, where she played the rest of her career. Hammon retired in 2014 as a six-time All-Star and a two-time All-WNBA First Team honoree. In 2016 she was named one of the top 20 players in WNBA history and was recently named to the W25.
Hammon became the second female coach in NBA history when she began coaching for the San Antonio Spurs in 2014. Additionally, Hammon is the only woman to be a head coach in the NBA Summer League as well as the only woman to be a member of an NBA All-Star coaching staff. Currently, Hammon is the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces and won the 2022 and 2023 WNBA Championships.
ÂAbout Her Hoop Stats
Her Hoop Stats was founded in 2017 to unlock better insight about women's basketball at all levels. We began as a statistics site focused on providing consistent, reliable, and easy-to-access data about women's basketball for both mobile and desktop environments. Her Hoop Stats has expanded to become a leading independent voice in the women's game providing content through our newsletter, podcast network, YouTube channel, and social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram).
