Women’s Basketball | February 07, 2025
The nation’s highest honor for a women’s basketball center is named for Trojan great Lisa Leslie. It’s fitting, then, that a current Trojan following in the footsteps of that USC legend is in the running for Leslie’s own Naismith Starting Five Award. USC senior Rayah Marshall is in good company as a Lisa Leslie Center of the Year Top 10 candidate, as selected by the Basketball Hall of Fame’s Naismith Starting Five committee, in collaboration with the WBCA.
Marshall is the third Trojan to be in line for one of the Naismith Starting Five awards this season, joined by JuJu Watkins as a candidate for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Shooting Guard of the Year Award and Kiki Iriafen as a candidate for the Katrina McClain Power Forward of the Year Award. Both Watkins and Iriafen were the winner of their respective awards last season.
The Lisa Leslie Award now in its eighth year recognizes the top centers in Division I women’s college basketball. It is named after the three-time All-American 1994 National Player of the Year and Class of 2015 Hall of Famer.
Senior center Marshall leads the Trojans with 2.2 blocks per game, ranking her No. 20 in the nation in that category. She is USC’s top rebounder with 9.0 per game while averaging 7.7 points per game on the offensive end. She has posted three double-doubles this season, giving her a total of 38 as a Trojan to rank seventh all-time at USC in career double-doubles. So far, she is pulling down 6.3 defensive rebounds per game for the Trojans.
Marshall also was recently named to the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Watch List, and she is also on the Naismith Trophy Watch List for 2025.
Fans are encouraged to participate in Fan Voting in both of the remaining rounds starting on Friday, February 7, on hoophallawards.com. The Fan Vote will count as one committee vote during the finalist selection process.
In March, the Top 10 list will be narrowed to just five, and in late March, the five finalists will be presented to Leslie and the Hall of Fame’s selection committees, where winners will be selected. The Selection Committees for the Lisa Leslie Award are composed of top men’s and women’s college basketball personnel, including media members, head coaches, sports information directors and Hall of Famers.
The winner of the…
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