Gophers sophomore Mara Braun named to Cheryl Miller Award watch list

Mara Braun is attracting even more preseason attention.

Braun, about to enter her sophomore season for the Gophers, was previously named by the conference coaches to the preseason all-conference women's basketball team after leading Minnesota in scoring as a freshman.

And now this: Braun was one of 20 players named to the 2024 Cheryl Miller small forward of the year watch list. This was announced Wednesday by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women's Basketball Coaches Association.

Perhaps oddly, Braun was named to the small forward list rather than the award for the nation's top shooting guard — Braun's main position last year — which is named after Ann Meyers Drysdale.

The 6-0 Braun was 12th in the Big Ten in scoring last season (15.6 points), was a member of the league's all-freshman team and became the first true freshman to lead the Gophers in scoring since Rachel Banham in 2011-12.

Over the summer Braun played for the Team USA in 3x3 competition, helping to win a gold medal at the U23 Nations League final in Mongolia in September. Braun's team went 21-1 in 3x3 play while becoming the first USA team, men or women, to win the Nations League event.

"This is an incredible honor for Mara and for our entire Minnesota women's basketball program," Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit said in a news release.

Braun is the first Gophers player to make any preseason watch list — the others are the Drysdale award, the Katrina McClain award (for power forwards) and the Lisa Leslie Center award — since Destiny Pitts and Taiye Bello in 2019.

Fans can take part in the voting starting Friday, and continuing as the 20-player watch list is cut to 10 in late January, then to five in late February. In March, the winner will be picked from the five finalists by Miller and the Hall of Fame's selection committee.

The Gophers open the season against Long Island University at Williams Arena on Nov. 8.

Here are the other 19 finalists for the award:

Aneesah Morrow, LSU; Rickea Jackson, Tennessee; Alyssa Ustby, North Carolina; Cotie McMahon, Ohio State; Caroline Ducharme, UConn; Aijha Blackwell, Baylor; Azzi Fudd, UConn; Lior Garzon, Oklahoma State; Jordyn Merritt, Texas Tech; Jakia Brown-Turner, Maryland; Madison Scott, Ole Miss; Grace VanSlooten, Oregon; Skylar Vann, Oklahoma; Yarden Garzon, Indiana; Jordan King, Marquette; Morgan Maly, Creighton; Kiki Jefferson, Louisville; McKenzie Forbes, USC; Kennedy Todd-Williams, Ole Miss.