Another day, another accolade for Cameron Brink. She is doing to college basketball what every way-more-impressive-than-me Stanford student did at high school academic award ceremonies: clean up.
On Wednesday morning, Brink was named an AP First Team All-American alongside Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo, U$C's JuJu Watkin$, and some players named Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers (never heard of them, wish they'd get more press).
Brink's recognition comes just one day after Sporting News and USBWA also crowned her a First Team All-American and also one day after she was named one of four finalists for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award and also... you get the point.
The hype is well-deserved: the Stanford senior phenom has been electric this year. I'll quote directly from Stanford's press release because I simply could not capture her statistical dominance more succinctly:
Brink is third nationally in rebounds per game (12.0) and using College Basketball Reference advanced metrics, she tops all DI players in box plus/minus (24.0), win shares per 40 minutes (.435), total rebound percentage (24.7), and block percentage (13.0). Her defensive rating of 69.6 is second.
She is the only player in the country averaging 17.0 points, 12.0 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game this season, numbers that have only been put up for an entire season six times by a major conference player since 1999-2000, most recently Oklahoma State's Natasha Mack in 2020-21. Brink is in the midst of one of the most efficient seasons by a major conference player in available records dating back to 2002-03 and currently leads the nation with a PER of 46.62.
Joining Brink as an AP All-American is Kiki Iriafen, who secured an Honorable Mention as a vote-getter. The Pac-12's Most Improved Player jumped from 6.7 points and 3.8 rebounds per game last year to 18.6 points and 11 rebounds per game this year. Talk about a glow up.
Not to be outdone, Stanford WBB Associate Head Coach Kate Paye was named the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Assistant Coach of the Year for Division I yesterday, an honor she also won in 2022. Paye's 17th season (and 8th as Associate Head Coach) continues a long legacy of championship caliber teams. And hey, she won one for Stanford back in '92, so she knows a thing or two about champions.
What's funny is that I'm almost certain that I missed another 2-3 awards bestowed upon Tara's squad in the last week. I'm only human. I can only process so much success at a time. Forgive me for any missed awards, egregious or minor.
The road to Cleveland starts tomorrow, Friday, March 22nd in Maples Pavilion when the Cardinal take on No. 15 Norfolk State (and a generous -35.5 spread) in the first round of March Madness. Tune in at 7pm PT on ESPN2 or join us in person.
It's time to dance.
--Fear The Me.