A program-record six Maryland women’s basketball players earned All-Big Ten honors Monday, as voted by the league’s head coaches and media panel.
Ashley Owusu was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year and Kaila Charles was a unanimous All-Big Ten first-team selection for the second straight season.
Senior Stephanie Jones (Aberdeen) and sophomore Shakira Austin earned All-Big Ten second team honors from both groups. Owusu was named to the second team by the media and earned honorable mention honors from the coaches. She was also named to the five-player All-Freshman Team.
Senior Blair Watson was named to the five-player All-Big Ten defensive team and earned All-Big Ten honorable mention honors. Sophomore Taylor Mikesell earned honorable mention honors from both groups as well. Jones also earned a Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.
Iowa senior guard Kathleen Doyle was chosen as Big Ten Player of the Year after former Hawkeyes star Megan Gustafson won it in 2019.
Joe McKeown of league co-champion Northwestern was chosen as Big Ten Coach of the Year. Northwestern sophomore guard Veronica Burton was picked as Defensive Player of the Year, and Nebraska sophomore guard Leigha Brown was voted Sixth Player of the Year.
Owusu is the second straight Big Ten Freshman of the Year for Maryland, after Mikesell earned the honor last season. Owusu averaged 11.6 points and her 5.2 assists per game were third most in the league. She is the No. 2 freshman in the country in assists with 150.
Charles led the Big Ten champion Terps in scoring (15.0 points) and rebounding (7.6). She has started in all 132 career games and has 1,963 career points, No. 6 on Maryland’s all-time scoring list.
Maryland will be the No. 1 seed for this weekend’s Big Ten Tournament and will face the winner of Purdue and Michigan State on Friday at noon in the quarterfinals in Indianapolis.
More women’s college basketball: South Carolina, Baylor, Oregon and Maryland would be the No. 1 seeds if the women’s NCAA Tournament began Monday. With two weeks to go until selection Monday, the NCAA revealed the top 16 teams to this point of the season. The snapshot of the top 16 teams in the NCAA tournament field is the second and final one released this year. Those schools would potentially host the opening two rounds of the tournament, which begins March 20. Maryland is a new No. 1 seed and the Terps would head to Fort Wayne, Indiana, as the top team there.
College football: The Maryland football team will hold its annual Red-White spring game Saturday, April 25, the team announced Monday. The team will begin spring practice on Tuesday, March 24, culminating with the intrasquad game taking place at noon at Capital One Field at Maryland Stadium. The game will take place on Maryland Day for the second straight year and will be broadcasted on the Big Ten Network. The Terps are coming off their first season under coach Mike Locksley, finishing 3-9 and 1-8 in the Big Ten after a 2-0 start.