Spruill Named to 2023 Becky Hammon Player of the Year Award Watchlist

Women’s Basketball | October 19, 2022

HOPEWELL, NJ La Salle Women’s basketball guard Kayla Spruill has been named to the 2023 Becky Hammon Player of the Year award watchlist, Her Hoops Stats announced Wednesday morning.

Spruill is joined by 24 other players across 24 different institutions and 13 conferences. The Atlantic 10 and MAC lead the watchlist with four representatives apiece, tying the previous record for most representatives on the watchlist.

Spruill earns the nod as she enters her fifth season with the Explorers. The Graduate student came off the 2021-20 season leading the conference in free throw percentage shooting 86% from the line. She also ranked fifth in the league and 58^th in the Nation for her field goal percentage, 51%. Spruill reached the 1,000-point milestone last season while helping lead La Salle to a 9-6 conference record, its best since 1996-97. She was named Preseason All-Conference First Team this season after earning a spot on the 2021-22 All-Conference First Team.

It’s Jan. 15 players will be announced for the mid-season watchlist with the 10 Semifinalists being announced in February followed by the five Semifinalists in early March. The Winner will be announced in late March.

About Becky Hammon

Hammon was a three-time All-American during her career at Colorado State and led the Rams to the Sweet 16 in 1999, the program’s only appearance to date. She was signed by the New York Liberty in 1999 and traded to the San Antonio Stars in 2007, where she played the rest of her career. Hammon Retired in 2014 as a six-time All-Star and a two-time All-WNBA First Team honoree. In 2016 she was named one of the top 20 players in WNBA history and was recently named to the W25.
Hammon became the second female Coach in NBA history when she began coaching for the San Antonio Spurs in 2014. Additionally, Hammon is the only woman to be a head Coach in the NBA Summer League as well as the only woman to be a member of an NBA All-Star coaching staff. Currently, Hammon is the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces and won the 2022 WNBA Championship in her first season.

About Her Hoop Stats

Her Hoop Stats was founded in 2017 to unlock better insight about Women’s basketball at all levels. We began as a statistics site focused on providing consistent, reliable, and easy-to-access data about Women’s basketball for both mobile and desktop environments. Her Hoop Stats has expanded to become a leading independent voice in the Women’s game providing content through our newsletter, podcast network, YouTube channel, and social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram).