CHICAGO – Jessica January has been selected as a finalist for the prestigious NCAA Woman of the Year award and has been invited to the Woman of the Year awards dinner Oct. 22 at the JW Marriott Indianapolis.
January is among the Top 30 honorees---10 each from Division I, Division II and Division III. They emerged from a field of 543 outstanding female college student-athletes which are the most nominees in the program’s 27-year history.
The field of 543 school nominees was narrowed down to 145 nominated by conferences and an independent selection committee.
The conference nominees represented college athletes from 16 different sports spanning all three NCAA divisions. Of those recognized, 58 nominees competed in Division I, 34 in Division II and 53 in Division III.
In late September, the selection committee will announce three women from each division as the nine finalists. From the finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will select the 2017 Woman of the Year who will be named at the Oct. 22 ceremony.
The NCAA Woman of the Year is a national award honoring academic achievement, athletics excellence, community service and leadership. It is one of the highest awards given by the NCAA. The Woman of the Year award is unique in its recognition of female student-athletes who are not just successful on the field and in the classroom, but have also contributed to their communities and campuses.
“The Top 30 honorees are remarkable representatives of the thousands of women competing in college sports each year,” said Sarah Hebberd, chair of the Woman of the Year selection committee and director of compliance at Georgia. “They have seized every opportunity available to them on the field of play, in the classroom and in the community, and we are proud to recognize them for their outstanding achievements.”
January was a 2017 Summa Cum Laude graduate at DePaul and earned 2017 CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team. The point guard was honored with the BIG EAST Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Award.
She was also a WBCA All-America Honorable Mention honoree, selected by the Connecticut Sun in the third round of the 2017 WNBA Draft and was a Senior CLASS Award Finalist.
January was voted BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year by the league’s coaches heading into the 2016-17 season. She got off to a fast start as the Maggie Dixon Classic MVP and being named to the all-tournament team of the prestigious Gulf Coast Showcase in Ft. Myers, Fla.
Her best stretch of the season came in consecutive 25-point performances against Alabama-Birmingham (25 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, three steals), Northwestern (25 points, six rebounds, six assists, four steals) and Western Kentucky (25 points, six rebounds, seven assists, three steals).
She was leading DePaul in scoring and among the NCAA leaders in assists when she suffered a broken finger during the Blue Demons’ BIG EAST opener at Georgetown.
After being sidelined for two months, the CoSIDA Academic All-American returned with a flourish. In just her second game back, January filled out the stat sheet with 16 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists in a 79-70 victory over Georgetown. It was the second triple-double of her career and third in Blue Demon history.
Her comeback continued in helping DePaul advance to the BIG EAST tournament title game, and January was named to the BIG EAST All-Tournament Team.
She finished strong in the final game of her career with 18 points and nine assists in a NCAA Tournament Second Round loss to host Mississippi State that went on to upset Connecticut in the Final Four before falling to South Carolina in the title game.
January concluded the season averaging 15 points, 6.5 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game. She graduated from DePaul fourth all-time in career assists (554), tied for seventh in career steals (238), 10th all-time in field goals (568) and No. 17 in points with 1,530.