2023 Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy Women’s Watch List Released

Aliyah Boston looks to become first repeat winner since Breanna Stewart

ATLANTA (November 4, 2022) –

Today, the Atlanta Tipoff Club opened the college basketball season by releasing the 50 players on the Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy Women’s Watch List. It includes last year’s Jersey Mike’s college player of the year, South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston. The senior forward can follow in the footsteps of her head coach, Dawn Staley, who won the Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy in consecutive years while she was at Virginia in the early 1990s. Boston would be the first repeat winner of this award since UConn’s Breanna Stewart won it in 2015 and 2016.  Joining Boston on the list is Stanford senior Haley Jones, a 2022 award finalist and recipient of the Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy High School Girls’ Player of the Year in 2019. 

The midseason 30 team will be announced in early February, and then the competition will be narrowed down to 10 national semifinalists in early March. Following those results, four finalists will be named on March 21, 2023, and the winner of the 2023 Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy for Women’s Player of the Year will be announced on March 29, 2023.  

“We have selected an elite group of athletes for the 2023 Jersey Mike’s Women’s Naismith Trophy watch list this year, and we look forward to keeping an eye on these stellar players and adding additional excellent players as the season progresses,” said Eric Oberman, executive director of the Atlanta Tipoff Club. 

The Big Ten Conference placed the most athletes on the watch list with 10. The ACC, Pac-12 and SEC are close behind with nine candidates apiece. South Carolina, the 2022 NCAA Women’s Basketball National Champions, has three players on the list, which ties them with Tennessee for most candidates from a single school.

“The athletes on the watch list are the best of the best in their sport, and likely will provide a season full of exciting moments on the court,” said Jeff Hemschoot, vice president of marketing, Jersey Mike’s.  “We are excited to watch these women compete as we get ready for another terrific season of women’s college basketball.”