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Diggins named Big East preseason player of the year

Diggins

Notre Dame guard Skylar Diggins was named the women's Big East preseason player of the year and was a unanimous selection to the preseason All-Big East team, the conference announced during its media day.

It's the second season in a row for Diggins to be named the preseason player of the year.

The 5-foot-9 senior averaged a team-high 16.8 points and 5.7 assists. She averaged 17.8 points and 5.8 assists in conference play.

Diggins is the only Irish player to be named to the preseason team, which is voted on by the coaches, and she is one of five unanimous selections. The other unanimous selections are Connecticut's Bria Hartley, DePaul's Anna Martin, Georgetown's Sugar Rodgers and Louisville's Shoni Schimmel.

Notre Dame, which won its first outright Big East title last season and reached the NCAA tournament championship game for the second year in a row, was picked to finish second in the conference.

The Irish, who received three first-place votes, were picked behind UConn, which received 12 first-place votes.

Coaches Poll

1.

Connecticut(12)

194

2.

Notre Dame (3)

182

3.

Louisville

167

4.

St. John's

144

5.

Rutgers

143

6.

DePaul

138

7.

Syracuse

105

8.

Georgetown

104

9.

USF

97

10.

Villanova

78

11.

Marquette

75

12.

Cincinnati

61

13.

Pittsburgh

31

Seton Hall

31

15

Providence

25

First-place votes in parentheses

Preseason awards

Player of the Year

Skylar Diggins, Notre Dame, Sr., G

Freshman of the Year

*Breanna Stewart, Connecticut, Fr., F

All-BIG EAST Team

Stefanie Dolson, Connecticut, Jr., C

*Bria Hartley, Connecticut, Jr., G

Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Connecticut, So., F

*Anna Martin, DePaul, Sr., G

*Sugar Rodgers, Georgetown, Sr., G

*Shoni Schimmel, Louisville, Jr., G

*Skylar Diggins, Notre Dame, Sr., G

Monique Oliver, Rutgers, Sr., F/C

Nadirah McKenith, St. John's, Sr., G

Shenneika Smith, St. John's, Sr., G

Kayla Alexander, Syracuse, Sr., C

Honorable Mention

Monique Reid, Louisville, Sr., F

Laura Sweeney, Villanova, Sr., F

*unanimous selection

The Journal Gazette's Assistant Sports Editor Tony Krausz covers The University of Notre Dame. Krausz, a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and a native of St. Louis, has been assistant sports editor since October 2005. Prior to joining the JG, he worked at two papers in Mississippi covering high school and college athletics.

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