The ACC has two of the most dynamic scoring guards in the country in Notre Dame's Arike Ogunbowale and Louisville's Asia Durr. Both seniors are on the preseason watch list for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award for shooting guards.
Ogunbowale played the starring role in last season's Final Four, hitting the winning shots against UConn in the semifinals and Mississippi State in the national championship game. Durr was the ACC player of the year and also led her Cardinals to the national semifinals last year.
UConn senior Katie Lou Samuelson, another Final Four participant last season, also made the Meyers Drysdale list. The Pac-12 had the most players on the list, with UCLA's Kennedy Burke, USC's Aliyah Mazyck, Washington's Amber Melgoza and Stanford's Kiana Williams.
The watch list also included, in alphabetical order: Marquette's Allazia Blockton, Idaho's Mikayla Ferenz, Grambling State's Shakyla Hill, Baylor's Chloe Jackson, St. Francis' Jessica Kovatch, South Florida's Kitija Laksa, Belmont's Darby Maggard, Kentucky's Maci Morris, Providence's Jovana Nogic, Minnesota's Destiny Pitts, Penn State's Teniya Page, Fresno State's Candice White and Georgetown's Dionna White.
Kovatch was also on the Nancy Lieberman Award list for point guards released Monday; a spokeswoman for the awards said Kovatch was listed on the same number of ballots for both positions.
Hill gained notice throughout the hoops world last season when she had a quadruple double -- just the fourth in NCAA women's basketball history -- with 15 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 steals against Alabama State.
The other women's college basketball position awards, which are sponsored by the Naismith Hall of Fame and the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, are named after Cheryl Miller (small forward), Katrina McClain (power forward) and Lisa Leslie (center). The watch lists for those will also be announced this week.
Each award will be pared down to 10 finalists in February and five in March. The winners will be announced at the Final Four in Tampa in April. Mississippi State's Victoria Vivians, now with the WNBA's Indiana Fever, was the inaugural winner of the Meyers Drysdale honor last season.