Arizona senior guard Aari McDonald was selected today as a second-team All-American by the Associated Press, her second consecutive year with that honor.
UConn freshman Paige Bueckers was a first-team All-American selection along with Dana Evans of Louisville, Aliyah Boston of South Carolina, Rhyne Howard of Kentucky and NaLyssa Smith of Baylor.
The second team along with McDonald included N.C. State’s Elissa Cunane, Michigan’s Naz Hillmon, Iowa freshman Caitlin Clark and Texas’ Charli Collier.
The third team was Oklahoma State’s Natasha Mack, Maryland’s Ashley Owusu, UCLA’s Michaela Onyenwere, Stanford’s Kiana Williams and Arkansas’ Chelsea Dungee.
McDonald was also named an honorable-mention All-American by the AP after the 2018-19 season, marking the first time in program history a player has been part of the AP All-American selections three separate seasons.
She finished this season leading the Pac-12 in scoring and steals per game for the third-straight season, a feat no other player in conference history has achieved.
During the regular season, she averaged 19.4 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.7 steals per game.
Heading into Monday’s NCAA Tournament game against Stony Brook, McDonald is averaging 19.3 points, 5.1 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 2.7 steals per game.
McDonald is up for plenty of top awards this season, as she is a finalist for the Lieberman Point Guard of the Year Award and the Wooden Award, is a semifinalist for the Naismith Player of the Year and Naismith Defensive Player of the Year and is on the Wade Trophy Watch List.
She was named the Pac-12 Player of the Year and Co-Defensive Player of the Year, becoming Arizona’s first Conference Player of the Year since Adia Barnes in 1998. She was also named Defensive Player of the Year for the second year in a row.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.
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