COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Women’s Basketball junior Sophie Cunningham is one of 30 student-athletes named to the John R. Wooden Award Women’s Preseason Top 30, as announced Tuesday on ESPN’s Sportscenter. The list is comprised of student-athletes who are the early front-runners for college basketball’s most prestigious honor.

The list is chosen by a preseason poll of women’s college basketball media members. This is Cunningham’s first time being named to the Top 30. She is one of six players from the Southeastern Conference on the list. The players on the list are considered strong candidates for the 2018 John R. Wooden Award Women’s Player of the Year presented by Wendy’s, the nation’s top individual honor.

Players not chosen to the preseason list are eligible for the Wooden Award midseason list, late season list and the National Ballot. The National Ballot consists of 15 top players who have proven to their universities that they are also making progress toward graduation and maintaining at least a cumulative 2.0 GPA. Voting will open prior to the start of the NCAA Tournament and will allow voters to take into consideration performance during early round games.

The Wooden Award All-American Team will be announced the week of the “Elite Eight” round of the NCAA Tournament. The winner of the 2018 John R. Wooden Award will be presented during the ESPN College Basketball Awards on Friday, April 6, 2018.

In October, Cunningham was named Preseason First Team All-SEC by both the league’s coaches and the media. She was also named to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association 2018 Cheryl Miller Award watch list, an honor that goes to the nation’s top small forward.

In 2016-17, Cunningham averaged a team-best 17.5 points per game, which ranked fourth in the SEC. She led Mizzou in total points, points per game, assists per game, free throw percentage, field goal percentage and total field goals made for the season. Cunningham finished with 10 20-point performances in 2016-17 and has 20 such outings in only 63 career games. She ended the regular season with four consecutive 20-point performances, racking up a pair of National Player of the Week awards.

Cunningham earned Associated Press All-America Honorable Mention recognition and First Team All-SEC honors after leading Mizzou to 22 wins, a third-place finish in the Southeastern Conference and a second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance for the first time since 1985 and 1986. She steered Mizzou to wins in back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in program history.

— Mizzou Athletics —