COLUMBUS, Ohio — After leading a successful regular season for the Ohio State women's basketball team, head coach Kevin McGuff was selected Tuesday as the Big Ten Coach of the Year.
McGuff led the Buckeyes to a 25-4 overall record and a 16-2 mark in the Big Ten. According to the Big Ten, Ohio State has ranked in the top 25 nationally every week this season and spent three weeks at No. 2 in the AP Poll for the highest-ranking program in history.
He is now on the watch list for the Werner Ladder Naismith Coach of the Year Award.
Other Big Ten women's basketball honors
For the third season in a row, Iowa player Caitlin Clark was voted Big Ten Player of the Year by conference coaches and a select panel of Big Ten media members. This comes at the heels of her breaking the late Pete Maravich’s 54-year-old record and becoming the all-time NCAA Division I scoring leader with 3,685 points, which she earned during Sunday's game against Ohio State.
Clark is the first back-to-back recipient of the honor since Ohio State's Jantel Lavender was chosen in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
The Defensive Player of the Year went to Ohio State's graduate student guard Celeste Taylor, who was selected by the coaches, and Wisconsin's Serah Williams, selected in the media vote.
Taylor is the fourth Buckeye to earn the honor of Defensive Player of the Year and the first since Amber Stokes in 2012. She leads the Big Ten with 2.24 steals per game and has started every game.
Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors went to Nebraska forward Natalie Potts who was chosen by the conference's coaches and Purdue forward Mary Ashley Stevenson, who was voted for by the media panel.
Jacy Sheldon also earned herself honors and was named to the Big Ten's weekly honor roll on Monday. Sheldon is just 18 points away from reaching 2,000 in her career. She was also named to Big Ten's First Team, along with Cotie McMahon.
On the Big Ten's Second Team are Taylor and Taylor Thierry.