Vivians Selected To Wooden Award Midseason Top 20 Watch List
January 15, 2016 | Women's Basketball
STARKVILLE, Miss. – A sensational start to her sophomore season has earned Mississippi State's Victoria Vivians a spot on the Wooden Award Midseason Top 20 Watch List, which was released Friday by the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
Vivians earned the nod after being named to the preseason watch list for the award, which has been given to the nation's top women's college basketball player since 2004.
The Carthage, Mississippi, native is one of four SEC players to make the midseason watch list, joining Tiffany Mitchell and A'ja Wilson of South Carolina and Diamond DeShields of Tennessee.
“I appreciate the Wooden Award committee for selecting me to the midseason watch list alongside some outstanding players,” Vivians said. “There's still a lot of basketball left this season, so I have to continue working hard so I can help our team reach our goal of competing for a championship.”
Vivians became one of six sophomores named to the list after posting an SEC-best 18.0 ppg in leading Mississippi State to a 16-2 mark and a 3-1 SEC record.
She added her 17th-straight game in double figures Thursday night with 19 points at Missouri. The effort put her third in scoring in league games at 17.3 ppg.
Vivians also paces Mississippi State in steals with a 2.1 per-game average that is sixth in the conference. That tally includes a league third-best 2.8 average in SEC games.
Her 19-point effort in Columbia Thursday night gives her a 17.6 career scoring average against ranked opponents.
She has paced MSU in scoring 12 times this season and 30 for her career, reaching double figures in 43 of her 52 career games. Vivians has tallied 20-plus points in seven contests this year and 15 times in her young career.
Against Arkansas last Sunday she became the fifth-fastest MSU player to record 800-career points. Her 829 points and 114 made 3-pointers are 14th and eighth, respectively, among active SEC players and tops among league sophomores.
Vivians and her Bulldog teammates return to the court Monday, hosting in-state rival Ole Miss in a 6 p.m. contest that will be broadcast nationally on the SEC Network.
Women's Wooden Award Midseason Top 20 Watch List
| Player | School | Pos. | Class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jillian Alleyne | Oregon | F | Sr. |
| Ameryst Alston | Ohio State | G | Sr. |
| Rachel Banham | Minnesota | G | Sr. |
| Nia Coffey | Northwestern | F | Jr. |
| Nina Davis | Baylor | F | Jr. |
| Diamond DeShields | Tennessee | G | So. |
| Moriah Jefferson | Connecticut | G | Sr. |
| Brionna Jones | Maryland | C | Jr. |
| Kelsey Mitchell | Ohio State | G | So. |
| Tiffany Mitchell | South Carolina | G | Sr. |
| Kelsey Plum | Washington | G | Jr. |
| Aerial Powers | Michigan State | F | Jr. |
| Azura Stevens | Duke | F/G | So. |
| Breanna Stewart | Connecticut | F | Sr. |
| Morgan Tuck | Connecticut | F | Jr. |
| Brianna Turner | Notre Dame | F | So. |
| Victoria Vivans | Mississippi State | G | So. |
| Shatori Walker-Kimbrough | Maryland | G | Jr. |
| Courtney Williams | South Florida | G | Sr. |
| A'ja Wilson | South Carolina | F | So. |
