TEMPE, Ariz. – Six Arizona State University women's basketball players were named to the Pac-12 Women's Basketball All-Academic teams, announced by Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott on Thursday.
Headlining the list for ASU was junior forward Jamie Ruden, who earned first-team honors for the second consecutive year. Last month Ruden was also named to the Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-District® VIII Second Team for the second straight year.
The Sun Devils also had five players named Pac-12 honorable mention recognition: senior forward Kianna Ibis, senior center Charnea Johnson-Chapman and junior guards Reili Richardson, Kiara Russell and Robbi Ryan.
To be eligible for selection to the academic team, a student-athlete must have a minimum 3.0 overall grade-point average and appear in at least 50 percent of their team's games.
Since the 1996-97 season, head coach Charli Turner Thorne's first season at ASU, the Sun Devils lead the Pac-12 in the number of first-team All-Academic conference awards (now 23) and the combined number of first- and second-team All-Academic conference awards (now 47).
Last season a school record eight Sun Devil women's basketball players were named to the Pac-12 Women's Basketball All-Academic teams. In 2017, ASU's team GPA of 3.672 was fifth in the nation (the highest ranking in program history) among Division I institutions in the WBCA's annual Academic Top 25. ASU's No. 5 finish represented the second time in three seasons the Sun Devils were among the top 10 programs in the country after placing seventh (3.558) for the 2014-15 academic year. In 2016-17 ASU was one of only eight teams around the country to be included in the WBCA's Top 25 and qualify for the NCAA Tournament
This year's Sun Devil squad will find out its NCAA Tournament destination on Monday when the brackets are announced on ESPN at 4 p.m. PT. The Sun Devils will be setting a new school record with their sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. They also set a school record this year for consecutive 20-win seasons (six).
Headlining the list for ASU was junior forward Jamie Ruden, who earned first-team honors for the second consecutive year. Last month Ruden was also named to the Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-District® VIII Second Team for the second straight year.
The Sun Devils also had five players named Pac-12 honorable mention recognition: senior forward Kianna Ibis, senior center Charnea Johnson-Chapman and junior guards Reili Richardson, Kiara Russell and Robbi Ryan.
To be eligible for selection to the academic team, a student-athlete must have a minimum 3.0 overall grade-point average and appear in at least 50 percent of their team's games.
Since the 1996-97 season, head coach Charli Turner Thorne's first season at ASU, the Sun Devils lead the Pac-12 in the number of first-team All-Academic conference awards (now 23) and the combined number of first- and second-team All-Academic conference awards (now 47).
Last season a school record eight Sun Devil women's basketball players were named to the Pac-12 Women's Basketball All-Academic teams. In 2017, ASU's team GPA of 3.672 was fifth in the nation (the highest ranking in program history) among Division I institutions in the WBCA's annual Academic Top 25. ASU's No. 5 finish represented the second time in three seasons the Sun Devils were among the top 10 programs in the country after placing seventh (3.558) for the 2014-15 academic year. In 2016-17 ASU was one of only eight teams around the country to be included in the WBCA's Top 25 and qualify for the NCAA Tournament
This year's Sun Devil squad will find out its NCAA Tournament destination on Monday when the brackets are announced on ESPN at 4 p.m. PT. The Sun Devils will be setting a new school record with their sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. They also set a school record this year for consecutive 20-win seasons (six).