The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Women's Basketball's Atkins, McCarty named candidates for Senior CLASS Award
01.04.2018 | Women's Basketball
Atkins and McCarty are among 30 candidates nationally for the prestigious honor.
University of Texas guards Ariel Atkins and Brooke McCarty are among 30 NCAA Division I women's basketball student-athletes to be named candidates for the prestigious 2017-18 Senior CLASS Award, it was announced Thursday.
To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement in Staying in School, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
The 30-candidate class will be narrowed to a field of 10 finalists in February, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one candidate who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition. The winner will be announced during the 2018 NCAA Women's Final Four.
Atkins, a 2017 First-Team All-Big 12 Conference selection, has played in 99 career games with 78 starts for the Longhorns. The 5-foot-11 guard from Duncanville, Texas, ranks 31st in program history in scoring with 1,150 career points and has a career free-throw shooting percentage of .825, which ranks fifth in program annals. She is a three-time member of the Academic All-Big 12 teams, an Arthur Ashe, Jr., Sports Scholar Honorable Mention Recipient and a three-time selection to the Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll. Atkins, who was a 2017 Allstate WBCA Good Works Team nominee, is the primary vocal leader on her team and, in the summer of 2016, participated in the U.S. Olympic Committee's Finding Leaders Among Minorities Everywhere (FLAME) program. She is a sport management major.
McCarty, the 2017 Big 12 Conference Player of the Year, has played in 117 career games with 96 starts for Texas. The 5-foot-4 point guard from League City, Texas, ranks 23rd in program history with 1,331 career points and ranks fourth in school history with 201 career three-pointers as one of only four players in UT annals to make 200 or more threes. She is a two-time first-team Academic All-Big 12 selection, a four-time honoree of the University of Texas Athletics Director's Honor Roll and a three-time selection to the Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll. She was a fourth-team Arthur Ashe Jr., Sports Scholar in 2015-16 and was selected to the Academic All-Big 12 rookie team as a freshman in 2014-15. Last year, McCarty was selected as the recipient of the program's Judy Dunn Award, which recognizes a deserving student-athlete who wants to pursue a career helping children. She is a youth and community studies major.
For more information, please visit seniorCLASSaward.com.
2017-18 Senior CLASS Award Candidates
Ariel Atkins, Texas
Briana Betz-White, Loyola
Lexie Brown, Duke
Tyra Buss, Indiana
Amanda Cahill, Indiana
Emily Clemens, Western Illinois
Kylie Giebelhausen, Southern Illinois
Rebecca Greenwell, Duke
Delaney Hodgins, Eastern Washington
Faith Ihim, Oral Roberts
Kaylee Jensen, Oklahoma State
Jackie Kemph, Saint Louis
Jordan Korinek, Kent State
Grace Lennox, Eastern Illinois
Raigyne Louis, LSU
Sally McCabe, Belmont
Brooke McCarty, Texas
Brittany McPhee, Stanford
Sydni Means, Mercer
Kia Nurse, UConn
Michelle Nwokedi, Penn
Vionise Pierre-Louis, Oklahoma
Tianna Tarter, East Tennessee State
Elle Thompson, South Dakota State
Rebekah VanDijk, UT-Arlington
Victoria Vivians, Mississippi State
Carlie Wagner, Minnesota
Kristy Wallace, Baylor
Morgan William, Mississippi State
Gabby Williams, UConn
