Jillian Alleyne, Oregon’s phenom center/forward, has been shortlisted for the prestigious John R. Wooden Award for 2015. Named after John Wooden, who led the UCLA men’s team to ten NCAA Mens Basketball Championships; the award honors the most outstanding men’s and women’s college basketball players in the United States. Alleyne, a 6′ 3″ junior from Fontana, California is one of 20 women selected for the midseason watch list.
John R. Wooden
In the January 5, 2015 victory against UCLA, Alleyne’s consecutive streak of double-doubles ended at 21. The streak sets a new Pac-12 and Oregon record and stands number third on the all-time women’s collegiate list behind Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris (112) and Artemis Spanou (33) from Robert Morris. Hampered by foul problems, Alleyne still totaled 15 rebounds and eight points in the game.
Jillian Alleyne
This season, the Ducks have struggled to implement Coach Kelly Grave’s slower paced game. Though their leading scorer, Chrishae Rowe, was dismissed from the team in November for a violation of team rules, the team has hammered out an overall record of 8-9 and while short-handed, has shown constant improvement throughout the season.
Alleyne is a vital cog in Graves’ rebuilding effort. This season she is fifth in the conference in scoring, fifth in blocked shots and leads the Pac-12 in rebounds with 15.1 per game. That total ranks second nationally. She has started a new streak with consecutive double-doubles in games against Washington and Washington State.
FishDuck.com congratulates Alleyne on her achievements.
Top Photo by Craig Strobeck
Related Articles:
Raised in the Central Oregon mill town of Prineville beneath deep blue skies and rim rock, I attended the University of Oregon and during my collegiate summers, I worked in a lumber mill and also fought range fires on the Oregon High Desert for the Bureau of Land Management. After graduating from college at the University of Oregon, I swung from being budding hippy to cop work. I’m still wondering about how that came about. I was a police officer with the Port of Portland and after leaving police work, I obtained an MFA degree in Creative Writing from Vermont College. I live in Portland, Oregon with my wife, my daughter and a spunky bichon frise named Pumpkin. I’ve had short stories publishing in two Main Street Press anthologies. Harkness is my first novel.