Caitlin Clark earns third straight Big Ten women’s basketball Player of the Year award

It was a foregone conclusion, of course, but the Big Ten Conference made it official Tuesday, the day before the women’s basketball conference tournament starts at Target Center:

Iowa star Caitlin Clark is the women’s basketball Player of the Year. Both the conference coaches and the media produce all-conference teams, and Clark — the nation’s leader in both scoring and assists — was the consensus POY on both teams, the third straight year she’s won the award.

Nebraska’s Natalie Potts was named Freshman of the Year by the coaches, Mary Ashley Stevenson of Purdue got it from the coaches. Ohio State’s Kevin McGuff was Coach of the Year, Wisconsin’s Serah Williams was Defensive Player of the Year and Michigan State’s Theryn Hallock was sixth player of the year.

Four Gophers players were honored.

Mara Braun, who missed the final nine games after hurting her right foot at Illinois, was named Honorable Mention by both coaches and media. Braun wrote the words “I’ll be back” on social media Tuesday, seeming to indicate her intention to return to the Gophers next season.

Gophers point guard Amaya Battle was named Honorable Mention by the media. Grace Grocholski was a consensus pick for the all-freshman team. Junior Maggie Czinano was named the team’s sportsmanship award representative.

Braun, from Wayzata, was one of the conference’s top scorers (17.8) and her 60 made threes were the ninth most in the country when she got hurt. As of March 3, her 95% mark on free throws was second in the nation. A sophomore, Braun shot a career-high 37% on three-point shots.

Battle, from Hopkins, was third in the Big Ten in assists (5.5) while pushing her scoring average from 9.0 as a freshman to 10.8 and her free throw shooting from 73% to 80.7.

Grocholski, a unanimous pick by the coaches, led all Big Ten freshmen in scoring (11.4) and was named Freshman of the Week three times. She had five games with 19 or more points, two more than any other freshman in the Big Ten, and her 18 games in double figures led the Gophers. Her 69 made threes are second all-time among Gophers freshmen.

Coaches teams: First team — Caitlin Clark, Iowa; Jacy Sheldon and Cotie McMahon, Ohio State; Mackenzie Holmes and Sara Scalia, Indiana; Alexis Markowski, Nebraska; Laila Phelia, Michigan; Serah Williams, Wisconsin; Shyanne Sellers, Maryland; Julie Ayrault, Michigan State. Second team – Hannah Stuelke and Kate Martin, Iowa; Jaz Shelley, Nebraska; Destiny Adams, Rutgers; Makira Cook, Illinois; Moira Joiner and DeeDee Hagemann, Michigan State; Chloe Moore-McNeil, Indiana; Celeste Taylor and Taylor Thierry, Ohio State; Jakia Brown-Turner, Maryland; Ashley Owusu, Penn State. Honorable mention — Kendall Bostic and Genesis Bryant, Illinois; Mara Braun, Minnesota; Makenna Marisa, Penn State; Brianna McDaniel, Maryland; Jeanae Terry and Caitlyn Harper, Purdue; Yarden Garzon, Indiana; Lauren Hansen, Michigan. All defense — Taylor; Leilani Kapinus, Penn State; Moore-McNeil; Williams; Holmes. All-Freshman: Natalie Potts, Nebraska; Grace Grocholski, Minnesota; Mary Ashley Stevenson, Purdue; Gretchen Dolan, Illinois; Logan Nissley, Nebraska.

Media teams: First team — Clark; Holmes; Sheldon; Williams; McMahon; Markowski; Scalia; Phelia; Sellers; Ayrault. Second team — Stuelke; Shelley; Taylor; Joiner; Martin; Moore-McNeil; Thierry; Cook; Marisa; Bostic. Honorable mention — Brown-Turner; Hagemann; Terry; Owusu; Ronnie Porter, Wisconsin; Adams; Tay Valladay, Penn State; Braun; Stevenson; Kapinus; Bryant; McDaniel; Garzon; Potts; Rebeka Mikulasikova, Ohio State; Braun and Amaya Battle, Minnesota; Hansen; Shay Ciezki, Penn State; Harper. All-defense — Williams; Taylor; Kapinus; Holmes; Shaldon. All-freshman — Stevenson; Potts; Grocholski; Jones; Nissley.