University of Northern Iowa Athletics
McDermott named to the 2025 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award midseason watch list
1/15/2025 10:14:00 AM | Women's Basketball
HOPEWELL, N.J. — UNI women's basketball senior Maya McDermott was named to the 2025 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award watch list as announced by Her Hoop Stats on Wednesday morning. The midseason team consists of 15 players from 10 conferences. This is McDermott's second straight year on the watchlist, being named to the preseason watch list last season.
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, and SEC. Additionally, players from Oregon State and Washington State are ineligible this year as membership in the Pac-12 Conference evolves.
A senior guard from Johnston, Iowa, Maya McDermott averages 20.7 points per game through 16 games, the 15th-best mark in the nation and tops in the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC). McDermott also leads the Valley in assist/turnover ratio (2.53), field goal attempts (263), field goals (121), free throw percentage (93.4), and points (331). McDermott's 93.4% from the free throw line is ranked 11th in the country. The guard has also continued to climb the UNI record book as she became only the sixth Panther in UNI history to eclipse 1,600 career points and the fifth Panther to record 400+ career assists. McDermott was named the MVC Player of the Week, USBWA National Player of the Week, and AP Women's Basketball National Player of the Week Runner Up after a 37-point performance against #8 Iowa State to lead the Panthers to their first-ever top-10 victory in program history. This season, Maya has recorded double figures in all but one game.
About Becky Hammon
Hammon was a three-time All-American 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 and 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.
About 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, Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram).
UNI women's basketball action can be followed all season long on social media on Facebook (UNI Women's Basketball), X (@UNIwbb), and on Instagram (@uni_wbb). The 2024-25 schedule and roster, along with the latest Panther news and information can be found online at UNIpanthers.com.
