The Ann Meyers Drysdale Award is an award presented annually to the best women's basketball shooting guard in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I competition. It is named after Hall of Famer Ann Meyers Drysdale (née Meyers), the first high school player to make the United States national team and the first woman to receive a full athletic scholarship to UCLA.
Creation and selection The Ann Meyers Drysdale Award was first presented in 2018, when WBCA and the Naismith Hall, in collaboration with ESPN, incorporated the Nancy Lieberman Award, first presented in 2000 to the top Division I women's point guard, into a new set of awards known as the "Naismith Starting Five" that are presented at the WBCA convention (except in 2020, when the convention was not held due to the coronavirus pandemic) to players at each of the five traditional basketball positions. These awards parallel a previously existing set of men's basketball positional awards also presented by the Hall. In addition to the Lieberman Award, the other three new awards are: Katrina McClain Power Forward Award Cheryl Miller Small Forward Award Lisa Leslie Center Award
Winners for each of the Starting Five awards are determined by a selection committee consisting of Hall of Famers, WBCA coaching members, and media, and headed by the award's namesake. Fan voting through the Hall's website is also incorporated into the selection process.
Key *Awarded, in addition, a national Player of the Year award: the Naismith College Player of the Year, Wade Trophy or the John R. Wooden AwardPlayer (X)Denotes the number of times the player has received the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award
Winners
SeasonPlayerSchoolClassRef. 2017–18 Mississippi State 2018–19 Louisville 2019–20 Arizona 2020–21 Maryland 2021–22 UConn 2022–23 South Carolina 2023–24 USC 2024–25 * (2) USC 2025–26 Vanderbilt
Winners by school School Winners Years USC 2 2024, 2025 Arizona 1 2020 Louisville 1 2019 Maryland 1 2021 Mississippi State 1 2018 South Carolina 1 2023 UConn 1 2022 Vanderbilt 1 2026
See also Jerry West Award – the counterpart to the Meyers Drysdale Award; given to the best men's NCAA shooting guard
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