The Pac-12 Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Year is a dormant basketball award given to the Pac-12 Conference's most outstanding player. The award was first given following the 1986–87 season, the first year in which the league then known as the Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10) officially sponsored women's sports.
Two bodies voted for players of the year. The league's head coaches selected a winner since the award's inception, while media members who cover Pac-12 women's basketball presented their own version of the award in the 2009–10 season. As is the case with the corresponding men's award, coaches were not allowed to vote for their own players.
Ten players have won the award more than once, but only two, Candice Wiggins of Stanford and Sabrina Ionescu of Oregon, have won three times, and only Ionescu has won all three awards consecutively. Six players have won a major end-of-season national award in the year that they won the conference award. Four of them are from Stanford: Jennifer Azzi claimed the Naismith Award and Wade Trophy in 1990; Kate Starbird won the Naismith Award in 1997; Wiggins received the Wade Trophy in 2008; and Chiney Ogwumike won the Wooden Award in 2014. The others are Kelsey Plum of Washington, who won all three major awards in 2017, and Ionescu, who received the Wade Trophy and Wooden Award in 2019 and all three major awards in 2020.
There have been four shared awards. Starbird and Tanja Kostić of Oregon State tied for the coaches' award in 1996. In 2015, Reshanda Gray of California won the coaches' award and Ruth Hamblin of Oregon State won the media award. The following year, Jamie Weisner of Oregon State won the coaches' award outright and shared the media award with Jillian Alleyne of Oregon. Most recently, Stanford teammates Cameron Brink and Haley Jones shared honors in 2022, with Brink receiving the media award and Jones the coaches' award.
For most of the award's history, the list of honorees has been dominated by Stanford, which has had 12 players earn a total of 20 awards. The rest of the conference has had 17 players earn a total of 19 awards. However, Stanford's 2022 awards were the Cardinal's first since the 2013–14 season. Three of the then-Pac-12 members have never had a winner: established members Arizona State and Washington State, plus 2011 arrival Colorado.
The Pac-12 lost all but two of its members after the 2023–24 season, leading the remaining members, Oregon State and Washington State, to become affiliates of the West Coast Conference in most sports, including women's basketball, in 2024–25 and 2025–26. However, in a span of less than three weeks in September 2024, the Pac-12 added six new members effective in 2026–27—Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Gonzaga, San Diego State, and Utah State. Several months later, Texas State was announced as a 2026 arrival. With nine confirmed members, conference play is expected to resume in 2026, with the award to again be presented starting in 2027.
Key †Co-Players of the Year*Awarded a national player of the year award that same season: Wade Trophy (1977–78 to present)Naismith College Player of the Year (1982–83 to present) John R. Wooden Award (2003–04 to present) CPac-12 coaches selection (2010–present) MMedia selection (2010–present)Player (X)Denotes the number of times the player has been awarded the Pac-12 Player of the Year award at that point
Winners SeasonPlayerSchoolPositionClassReference 1986–87 Oregon Guard 1987–88 USC 1988–89 Stanford Guard 1989–90 * (2) Stanford Guard 1990–91 Stanford Guard 1991–92 Stanford 1992–93 (2) Stanford 1993–94 UCLA 1994–95 Oregon State Forward 1995–96† (2) Oregon State Forward Stanford Guard 1996–97 * (2) Stanford Guard 1997–98 Arizona 1998–99 UCLA 1999–2000 Oregon Guard 2000–01 Oregon State Guard 2001–02 Stanford Forward 2002–03 Washington Guard 2003–04 (2) Stanford Forward 2004–05 Stanford Guard 2005–06 (2) Stanford Guard 2006–07 California 2007–08 * (3) Stanford Guard 2008–09 Stanford 2009–10 Stanford Forward 2010–11 Stanford Guard 2011–12 (2) Stanford Forward 2012–13 Stanford Forward 2013–14 * (2) Stanford Forward 2014–15 † C California Forward M Oregon State Center 2015–16 † M Oregon Forward C, M Oregon State Guard 2016–17 * Washington Guard 2017–18 Oregon Guard 2018–19 * (2) Oregon Guard 2019–20 * (3) Oregon Guard 2020–21 Arizona Guard 2021–22 † M Stanford Forward C Guard 2022–23 Utah Forward 2023–24 (2) Stanford Forward
Winners by school
School (year joined) Winners Years Stanford (1959) 21 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996†, 1997, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2022 (×2)†, 2024 Oregon (1964) 6 1987, 2000, 2016†, 2018, 2019, 2020 Oregon State (1964) 5 1995, 1996†, 2001, 2015†, 2016† Arizona (1978) 2 1998, 2021 California (1959) 2 2007, 2015† UCLA (1959) 2 1994, 1999 Washington (1959) 2 2003, 2017 USC (1959) 1 1988 Utah (2011) 1 2023 Arizona State (1978) 0 — Colorado (2011) 0 — Washington State (1962) 0 —
Footnotes
References General List of winners through 2014–15: Classes of winners: All award winners but four—Landerholm (1987), Nelson (1988), Ragland (2001), and Pohlen (2011)—were on the conference's All-Freshman Team. Extrapolating from the conference's list of All-Freshman Team members allows a Player of the Year's class to be determined.
Specific