{"id":251391,"date":"2025-10-30T17:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T17:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/251391\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T17:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T17:53:11","slug":"sienna-betts-named-to-2026-katrina-mcclain-award-preseason-watch-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/251391\/","title":{"rendered":"Sienna Betts Named to 2026 Katrina McClain Award Preseason Watch List"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2013 Freshman Sienna Betts<\/a> has been named to the 20-candidate preseason watch list for the 2026 Katrina McClain Power Forward of the Year Award, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) announced Thursday.
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\nThe Katrina McClain Award, now in its ninth year, recognizes the top power forwards in women’s NCAA Division I college basketball.
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\nThe Bruin freshman comes to Westwood as the number-two ranked recruit in the\u00a02025 HoopGurlz Recruiting Rankings<\/a>\u00a0according to espnW. Betts was named Colorado’s Gatorade Player of the Year in girls basketball for the 2024-25 season and for the third-consecutive year. Betts averaged 23.0 points, 16.5 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 3.4 blocks and 2.3 steals this past season at Grandview High School, where she won her third state championship in four years. She had 27 double-doubles in 28 games played.
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\nBetts is expected to miss the season opener, per The Michael Price Family UCLA Women’s Head Basketball Coach Cori Close<\/a>‘s media availability<\/a> on Oct. 29.
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\nFans can support their favorite player by participating in Fan Voting starting Friday, October 31. In late January, the watch list of 20 players for the 2026 Karl Malone and Katrina McClain Awards will be narrowed to 10, and then in late February, to just five. In March, the five finalists will be presented to Malone, McClain, and the Hall of Fame’s selection committees, where winners will be selected. The Selection Committees for the Karl Malone and Katrina McClain Awards are composed of top men’s and women’s college basketball personnel, including media members, head coaches, sports information directors, and Hall of Famers.
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\nThe winner of the 2026 Malone and McClain Awards will be presented on a to-be-determined date, along with the other four members of the Men’s and Women’s Starting Five. Additional awards being presented include the Bob Cousy and Nancy Lieberman Awards (Point Guard), Jerry West and Ann Meyers Drysdale Awards (Shooting Guard), Julius Erving and Cheryl Miller Awards (Small Forward), and the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lisa Leslie Awards (Center).
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\nFor more information on the 2026 Karl Malone and Katrina McClain Awards and the latest updates, visit hoophallawards.com and follow @hoophallu, #MaloneAward, and #McClainAward on X and Instagram.
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\n2026 Katrina McClain Award Candidates
\nEssence Cody \u2013 Alabama
\nDarianna Littlepage-Buggs \u2013 Baylor
\nToby Fournier \u2013 Duke
\nMeghan Andersen \u2013 Fairfield
\nAllie Kubek \u2013 Florida State
\nHannah Stuelke \u2013 Iowa
\nAddy Brown \u2013 Iowa State
\nAmiya Joyner \u2013 LSU
\nMir McLean \u2013 Maryland
\nKhamil Pierre \u2013 NC State
\nNatalie Potts \u2013 Nebraska
\nLatasha Lattimore \u2013 Ole Miss
\nMaggie Doogan \u2013 Richmond
\nJoyce Edwards \u2013 South Carolina
\nNunu Agara \u2013 Stanford
\nJaniah Barker<\/a> \u2013 Tennessee
\nSienna Betts<\/a> \u2013 UCLA
\nSarah Strong \u2013 UConn
\nSacha Washington \u2013 Vanderbilt
\nSa’Myah Smith \u2013 Virginia
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2013 Freshman Sienna Betts has been named to the 20-candidate preseason watch list for the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-251391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}