Big Ten women’s basketball awards 2025: Full list of top performers and achievers ft. JuJu Watkins, Lauren Betts, and more

The 2024-25 Big Ten awards have been handed out to the conference's top women's basketball players. There is some incredible talent on display on a nightly basis with five teams ranked in the AP Poll ahead of the Big Ten Tournament beginning on Wednesday.

The award winners and the All-Big Ten teams were announced on Tuesday afternoon live on the Big Ten Network's "B1G Today" show. The awards given out were Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year, Sixth Player of the Year, and Coach of the Year.

With some excellent talent littered throughout the conference, there were a handful of contenders for the awards. Which players were able to win awards this season? Let's take a closer look at the awards decided on by the media as well as the coaches and see which players walked away from the regular season with some hardware.

Big Ten women's basketball awards for 2024-25 season

Big Ten Player of the Year

The Big Ten Player of the Year should not be a surprise as USC Trojans sophomore guard JuJu Watkins won the award. She had an outstanding regular season as she finished with a shooting split of 42.9/33.9/82.6 while averaging 24.4 points, 6.7 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 2.1 steals and 2.0 blocks per game. She was the second-leading scorer in college basketball so it makes sense as no other Big Ten player finished with 20.0 points per game.

She is also on the list for some national awards as well as she was the fastest USC Trojans player to score 1,000 career points in the history of the program.

Big Ten Freshman of the Year

The Big Ten Freshman of the Year is interesting as the media panel selected Ohio State guard Jaloni Cambridge while the coaches' vote had it split between Cambridge and Michigan guard Olivia Olson.

Cambridge averaged 16.0 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 3.9 apg and 2.1 spg while shooting 44.4% from the floor, 33.3% from the 3-point line and 73.4% from the free-throw line.

Olivia Olson has been a sharpshooter as she has a 47.0/40.0/82.1 shooting split while posting 16.0 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 2.0 apg and 1.4 spg.

Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year

Junior center Lauren Betts is one of the best players in the sport and walked away with the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. She recorded 19.7 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 2.7 apg, 0.7 spg and 2.8 bpg in 29.8 minutes. Betts is also a candidate for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Award.

Big Ten Coach of the Year

The Big Ten has a lot of quality teams as they have five teams in the Top 25, so the award could have gone to a few different coaches. USC's Lindsay Gottlieb took home the award as the team won the Big Ten regular-season championship with a 26-2 (16-1 Big Ten) record in its first year in the conference.

Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year

UCLA Bruins junior forward Janiah Barker was the best player in the Big Ten off the bench in an outstanding role for the fourth-ranked program. She appeared in 28 games (three starts) and recorded 7.9 ppg, 6.1 rpg and 1.3 apg while playing 17.9 minutes per game.