NEW YORK – On the eve of the 2023 BIG EAST Women’s Basketball Tournament presented by JEEP, the Conference announced its annual regular-season awards. Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist was unanimously voted the BIG EAST Player of the Year, becoming the seventh player in league history to claim multiple Player of the Year honors after earning the recognition in 2022. St. John’s Joe Tartamella was named BIG EAST Coach of the Year, while Georgetown’s Kennedy Fauntleroy was the unanimous pick for BIG EAST Freshman of the Year. Major awards and All-BIG EAST Teams were selected by a vote of the league’s head coaches who were not allowed to vote for themselves or their own players.
 
Additional major award winners include: BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year Nika Mühl of Connecticut; Most Improved Player Aaliyah Edwards of UConn; Georgetown’s Graceann Bennett as the Sportsmanship Award winner; and Unique Drake of St. John’s as Sixth-Woman of the Year. A 10-member All-BIG EAST First Team, a five-member Second Team, four Honorable Mentions and a five-member All-Freshman Team were also selected.
 
Siegrist had a historic regular reason at Villanova, breaking record after record. Among her notable achievements in 2022-23, she became the BIG EAST’s all-time leading scorer, men’s or women’s, with 1,693 points over 69 career conference games, snapping the previous women’s record of 1,546 set in 1989-93 by Boston College’s Sarah Behn, and the men’s record of 1,587 held by Marquette’s Markus Howard (2016-20). Siegrist broke Behn’s mark on Feb. 11 with a record-breaking 50-point performance, the most in a single game in BIG EAST women’s basketball history. Other notable records broken include: single-season points (715), single-season scoring average (29.5) and career scoring average (24.5). Siegrist enters the postseason as the nation’s leading scorer, averaging 29.0 points per game over 31 appearances which includes 13 games of at least 30 points. She has scored no less than 21 points in a game this year, while also tallying 15 double-doubles and averaging 9.1 boards per game – second most in the BIG EAST. She was also a unanimous selection to the All-BIG EAST First Team.
 
Siegrist, a record 17-time BIG EAST Player of the Week, joins UConn’s Kerry Bascom, Rebecca Lobo, Diana Taurasi and Maya Moore, Notre Dame’s Skylar Diggins and Villanova’s Shelly Pennefather as the only repeat BIG EAST Players of the Year. She was also named BIG EAST Scholar-Athlete of the Year on Wednesday, marking the ninth time the BIG EAST Scholar-Athlete of the Year was also the BIG EAST Player of the Year.
 
In his 11^th year at the helm, St. John’s head coach Joe Tartamella earns top coaching honors for the first time. The Red Storm were picked to finish seventh in the BIG EAST Preseason Coaches’ Poll and Tartamella led them to a fourth-place finish, which included wins over then-No. 4 Connecticut, then-No. 13 Creighton and Marquette. St. John’s went 9-0 in non-conference play, one of just nine Division I programs to go unbeaten in non-league action. The Red Storm broke into the top-25 polls for the first time since 2015 after posting a program-record 13-0 start to the season. St. John’s won its first four BIG EAST games for the first time in program history despite using a lineup which featured five newcomers to the team. This is the fifth time a St. John’s head coach has garnered the BIG EAST honor and first since Kim Barnes Arico in 2012.
 
Fauntleroy becomes the first Hoya to earn BIG EAST Freshman of the Year honors since Dorothy Adomako in 2015, and the sixth overall. In BIG EAST play, the rookie guard was the top scoring and rebounding freshman, averaging 11.9 points and 4.3 rebounds over 19 appearances. She also led rookies with 2.7 steals, 2.9 assists and 0.5 blocks per contest. A six-time BIG EAST Freshman of the Week, Fauntleroy ranks third among all BIG EAST players with 2.5 steals per contest, while ranking in the top 20 overall in scoring (11.3) and assists (3.0). She has scored in double figures in 17 of 28 games and is second on the Georgetown roster in points per game. Fauntleroy was also a unanimous pick to the BIG EAST All-Freshman Team.
 
Mühl earns BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year honors for the second straight year, becoming just the fifth player in league history to earn the recognition multiple times. The junior guard anchored UConn’s defense which limited BIG EAST opponents to a league-best 54.2 points per game. Mühl is constantly tasked with guarding the opponents’ top guard. She leads the Huskies with 40 steals on the year. Mühl, who ranks second nationally with 7.9 assists per game, also earned a spot on the All-BIG EAST Second Team.
 
Edwards has stepped up for the shorthanded Huskies in a big way, more than doubling her scoring average from a year ago and increasing her rebounds per contest by more than three per game. Through 31 games this year, Edwards has bumped her scoring average from 7.9 to 16.3, while her rebounding stats went from 5.1 to 8.8. She has 11 double-doubles after not having any in 2021-22. She has led UConn in scoring 11 times this season and led in rebounding 16 times. She ranks fifth in the BIG EAST in scoring and fourth in rebounding, and was also a unanimous All-BIG EAST First Team selection. She is the third Husky to be named Most Improved Player.
 
Bennett is a two-time team captain and a leader for Georgetown both on and off the court. On the court, Bennett has started every game this season and ranks fourth on the team in scoring with 8.4 points per game. Off the court, Bennett has worked with the Voice in Sport Foundation for the past two years as she champions raising the bar for women’s sports. This internship has led to organizing and attending events on Capitol Hill, traveling to New York for speaker series and networking with powerful women in sports. She founded Hoyos this year which is a women’s sports affinity group specifically for female varsity athletes. The goal of the group is to promote women’s sports and also to push forward women’s sports on campus to secure equal treatment to the men’s programs. Bennett lost her mother unexpectedly a season ago and much of her activism both with women’s sports came following that tragic event. She is the first Hoya to earn the Sportsmanship recognition.
 
Drake has come off the bench in all but one game this season, yet ranks third on St. John’s in scoring with 8.5 points per game. Her 33 made triples on the year rank second on the Red Storm while her 1.6 assists per contests rank fourth. She has scored in double figures in nine games this season, seven of which came against BIG EAST opponents. On the year, Drake is shooting over 41 percent from the field and over 35 percent from three.  
 
Siegrist and Edwards were two of seven unanimous First Team All-BIG EAST selections along with UConn’s Lou Lopez Senechal, DePaul’s Aneesah Morrow, Marquette’s Jordan King, St. John’s Jayla Everett and Seton Hall’s Lauren Park-Lane. Lopez Senechal has been a consistent scorer for the Huskies, averaging 15.9 points per game, while Morrow continues to dominate for the Blue Demons with the BIG EAST’s No. 2 scoring average (25.7) and No. 1 rebounding clip (12.0), both of which rank in the top seven nationally.
 
King, along with fellow Marquette First Team honoree Chloe Marotta, are enjoying breakout senior seasons. King (16.3 ppg) and Marotta (14.8 ppg, 8.9 rpg) are both putting up career numbers for the Golden Eagles. Everett, a first-year St. John’s player who transferred from Pitt, has helped spark the resurgence of the Red Storm, averaging a team-best 16.2 points per game to rank eighth in the BIG EAST. Park-Lane ranks in the top 25 nationally in scoring (19.7) and assists (6.4), while listing third in the BIG EAST in points and second in dishes. Additionally, Creighton saw two voted to the First Team in Lauren Jensen and Morgan Maly – they rank 10^th (15.7) and 11^th (15.5) in scoring in the BIG EAST, respectively. They are also two of the most dangerous three-point shooters in the league, with Maly averaging 2.4 made per game and Jensen adding 2.0 per contest.
 
Joining Mühl on the second team is fellow Husky Dorka Juhász, who averages a double-double at 14.3 points, 10.0 rebounds per game. DePaul’s Darrione Rogers, who has the lone triple-double in the BIG EAST this season, was also a Second Team honoree, along with Seton Hall’s top rebounder and No. 2 scorer Sidney Cooks (16.2 points, 6.0 rebounds). Villanova’s Lucy Olsen, who bumped her scoring average from 7.0 as a freshman to 12.4 this year, was also named to the All-BIG EAST Second Team. Honorable Mention honorees included UConn’s Aubrey Griffin, Creighton’s Emma Ronsiek, Georgetown’s Kelsey Ransom and St. John’s Kadaja Bailey.
 
The five-member BIG EAST All-Freshman Team saw Fauntleroy and Marquette’s Emily La Chapell unanimously selected. Butler’s Jessica Carrothers, Marquette’s Mackenzie Hare and Xavier’s Fernanda Ovalle were also voted to the All-Freshman squad.
 
Player of the Year 
Maddy Siegrist Villanova, Sr., F*
Coach of the Year
Joe Tartamella, St. John’s
Freshman of the Year
Kennedy Fauntleroy, Georgetown, Fr., G*
Defensive Player of the Year
Nika Mühl, Connecticut, Jr., G
Most Improved Player
Aaliyah Edwards, Connecticut, Jr., F
Sportsmanship Award
Graceann Bennett, Georgetown, Sr., F
Sixth-Woman of the Year
Unique Drake, St. John’s, Sr., G
 
All-BIG EAST First Team
Aaliyah Edwards, Connecticut, Jr., F*
Lou Lopez Senechal, Connecticut, Grad., G/F
Lauren Jensen, Creighton, Jr., G
Morgan Maly, Creighton, Jr., G/F
Aneesah Morrow, DePaul, So., F*
Jordan King, Marquette, Sr., G*
Chloe Marotta, Marquette, Sr., F
Jayla Everett, St. John’s, R-Sr., G*
Lauren Park-Lane, Seton Hall, Sr., G*
Maddy Siegrist Villanova, Sr., F*
 
All-BIG EAST Second Team
Dorka Juhász, Connecticut, Grad., F
Nika Mühl, Connecticut, Jr., G
Darrione Rogers, DePaul, Jr., G
Sidney Cooks, Seton Hall, Grad., F/C
Lucy Olsen, Villanova, So., G
 
Honorable Mention
Aubrey Griffin, Connecticut, R-Jr., F
Emma Ronsiek, Creighton, Jr. F
Kelsey Ransom, Georgetown, Jr., G
Kadaja Bailey, St. John’s, R-Sr., G
 
All-Freshman Team
Jessica Carrothers, Butler, Fr., G
Kennedy Fauntleroy, Georgetown, Fr., G*
Mackenzie Hare, Marquette, Fr., G
Emily La Chapell, Marquette, Fr., G*
Fernanda Ovalle, Xavier, Fr., G
*unanimous selection