In the Summer Issue of The Bootleg Magazine, we released the 30 finalists for The Bootleg Honor Roll award for the 2004/2005 school-year.
The criteria are as follows:
Each academic year, The Bootleg’s Honor Roll will recognize the top ten Stanford student-athletes
who have performed at an exceptional level, with athletic accomplishments that are both extraordinary and inspirational. While achieving athletic success, these athletes should also have
displayed uncommon leadership, sportsmanship and respect towards their fellow teammates and opponents. Finally, these
honorees’ performances and actions should also demonstrate their love for their particular sport as well as their school
pride, the famed “Spirit of Stanford.”
Over the last month, we have been releasing the 10 winners of this
prestigious award, one by one. We previously have recognized
Tony Azevedo,
Alice Barnes,
Nicole Barnhart,
Caroline Bruce,
Gary Marshall,
Erica McLain,
Ogonna Nnamani,
Michael Robertson and
Sam Warburg amongst
this year's winners. Our 10th and final announced member of the The Bootleg's
2004-05 Honor Roll is women's basketball performer Candice Wiggins.
Nicole Powell, Kristin Folkl, Kate Starbird, Val Whiting, Sonja Henning and
Jennifer Azzi: Stanford's Kodak All-Americans read as a definitive "Who's Who"
of Cardinal basketball. Create room for Candice Wiggins, for it took just
one season for the freshman phenom to add herself to that list. However,
not content to merely join six Cardinal legends, the affable 18-year old managed
to better her peers, becoming the first-ever Cardinal freshman to be named a
Kodak All-American.
The
collegiate All-American honors are the latest in an impressive litany of awards
for the two-time state champion, high school All-American, and California's 2004
Ms. Basketball out of La Jolla Country Day. On the regional level, Wiggins
was named Pac-10 Player of the Year, Pac-10 Freshman of the Year, and Most
Outstanding Player at the Pac-10 Tournament. Nationally, Wiggins was not
only an All-American, but also was the U.S. Basketball Writers Association's
Co-Freshman of the Year, alongside Georgia's Tasha Humphrey.
Internationally, Wiggins served as one of three captains for the USA's U-19
World Championship Team earlier this summer, which won the gold medal for just
the second time and played a perfect 8-0. The rising Stanford sophomore
was one of two U.S. players named to the five-member All-U19 World Championship
Team.
For Stanford, Wiggins posted a team-leading 17.5 points per game on 48%
shooting in leading her squad within inches of the Final Four. She
snatched 85 steals, more than double any teammate, and also pulled down 5.4
rebounds per game, remarkably high for a guard.
Wiggins' upside is seemingly limitless, with three areas where she has the
potential to improve tremendously: ballhandling (she led the team with 103
turnovers), perimeter shooting (she shot about 10% worse deep than fellow
starting guards Kelley Suminski and Susan King Borchardt) and team defense (while a
great individual defender in open space, Wiggins was often a step behind facing
opposing half-court offenses).
However,
attempting to explain Wiggins' play through mere awards, statistics, and
evaluations is as woefully inadequate as describing the Mona Lisa as a
painting of a woman. Perhaps the best demonstration of Wiggins' potential
is the mood heading into this upcoming 2005-06 Stanford season. Consider
that of last year's top seven players, only Wiggins and teammate Brooke Smith
return, creating a reloading task comparable to what North Carolina must attempt
on the men's side. However, despite the mass exodus of talent, the
Cardinal will almost assuredly be predicted to finish atop the Pac-10 and
amongst the top teams nationally, for one overwhelming reason: Candice Wiggins.
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