The preseason accolades continue to roll in for UConn women’s basketball sophomore Sarah Strong, who was named to the top 20 watchlist for the Katrina McClain Award for the nation’s best power forward on Wednesday.
Strong was a finalist for the Cheryl Miller Award, given to the top small forward, as a freshman in 2025. LSU’s Aneesah Morrow, who now plays for the Connecticut Sun, won the Katrina McClain last year. The award’s only returning 2025 finalist is Baylor’s Darianna Littlepage-Buggs, but NC State’s Khamil Pierre is also on the preseason watchlist after she was a Cheryl Miller finalist while playing for Vanderbilt last season.
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The preseason watchlist also includes Fairfield junior Meghan Andersen and Maryland senior Mir McLean, who played at UConn from 2020-21 before transferring to Virginia mid-season in 2021-22 and then to the Terrapins in 2024-25.
The only UConn player who has won the Katrina McClain Award previously was Napheesa Collier in 2019. Former Oregon standout Ruthy Hebard is the only player that has earned the award as a sophomore when she won in 2018.
Strong enters her sophomore season as a frontrunner in the national player of the year conversation. She was the youngest player named a preseason AP All-American and was recognized as the Big East’s preseason Player of the Year. Strong was also named to the Naismith Trophy’s preseason watchlist.
Strong was a second-team AP All-American as a freshman, averaging 16.4 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 1.7 blocks last season to help lead the Huskies to their first NCAA championship since 2016. On the way to the title, she broke the NCAA Tournament record for most points scored by a freshman previously held by Tennessee legend Tamika Catchings.
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The star forward was also a WBCA All-American, a USBWA third-team All-American and the WBCA Freshman of the Year in 2024-25. She set UConn’s program record for rebounds by a freshman and became the first freshman since Hall of Famer Maya Moore to score 600-plus points.
UConn women’s basketball’s Caroline Ducharme named to Cheryl Miller Award preseason watchlist
Katrina McClain Award preseason watchlist
Nunu Agara, Stanford
Meghan Andersen, Fairfield
Sienna Betts, UCLA
Janiah Barker, Tennessee
Addy Brown, Iowa State
Essence Cody, Alabama
Maggie Doogan, Richmond
Joyce Edwards, South Carolina
Toby Fournier, Duke
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Amiya Joyner, LSU
Allie Kubek, Florida State
Latasha Lattimore, Ole Miss
Darianna Littlepage-Buggs, Baylor
Mir McClean, Maryland
Khamil Pierre, NC State
Natalie Potts, Nebraska
Sa’Myah Smith, Virginia
Hannah Stuelke, Iowa
Sarah Strong, UConn
Sacha Washington, Vanderbilt
