Every so often at this time of the year, we hear about a new watch list or semifinalist list coming out for a certain women’s college basketball award. Earlier this month, the Wooden Award Top 25 Watch List was released, and just last week, Her Hoop Stats narrowed the Hammon Award field to 15.

While debating the big-time awards is always fun (at least until things get too heated on Twitter), those awards tend to recognize more general accomplishments. Yes, there are defensive player of the year awards that focus on just one side of the floor, but what about shot blocker of the year or passer of the year?

In that spirit, we’ve rolled out the Impact Awards, inspired by Andy Dieckhoff’s Arthur Awards for Heat Check CBB on the men’s side. We’ve made a few tweaks to the formulas for our purposes, but the process is the same, so be sure to check out Andy’s piece for the details.

The short version: These awards are designed to honor players who do a terrific job at one specific role and, unlike the mainstream national awards which strongly rely on human opinion, every Impact Award is computed objectively based on a set of statistical criteria that represents its role. From each of those criteria, a score is calculated, and the top score determines the winner.

Here’s an overview of the awards and the stats associated with each (a plus sign in parentheses indicates that higher values in that category are desired; a minus sign indicates a lean toward lower values):

• The Main Attraction – Usage (+), Offensive Rating (+), Effective FG Rate (+)
• The Floor General – Minutes Played (+), Assist Rate (+), Turnover Rate (-)
• The Artillery Gunner – 3-Point Percentage (+), 3PA/40 (+)
• The Brick Wall – Block Rate (+), Defensive Win Shares (+), Fouls Committed/40 (-)
• The Swiss Army Knife – 2-Pointer% (+), 3-Pointer% (+), Assist% (+), Turnover% (-), Off. Rebound% (+), Def. Rebound% (+), Block% (+), Steal (+)
• The Junkyard Dog – Off. Rebound Rate (+), Def. Rebound Rate (+)
• The Cutpurse – Steal Rate (+), Fouls Committed/40 (-)
• The Unicorn – Block Rate (+), 3-Pointers Made (+), Assist Rate (+)
• The Secret Weapon – Minutes Played (-), Off. Rating (+), True Shooting % (+)

The Main Attraction: Monika Czinano, Iowa

There’s a certain irony about the winner of the Main Attraction being what most would consider the second attraction on her own team, but hey, blame the math. The sidekick to Caitlin Clark for the last season and a half, Czinano would certainly be the No. 1 option on over 300 teams in the country. The prolific senior is shooting over 65 percent from the field for the third straight season and is doing so on enough volume to average over 20 points per game. (And how about a special shoutout to the Big Ten for having three of the five players on this list?)

The Floor General: Kayla Padilla, Penn

Interestingly, not everyone on this list is a point guard — some players like Rhyne Howard simply excel at both passing and protecting the ball. But it’s fitting that the winner is not only a point guard, but one of the best point guards in the Ivy League. Padilla already has some hardware in her trophy case after winning the 2020 Ivy League Rookie of the Year, and now she can add another award that’s almost as prestigious.

The Artillery Gunner: Taylor Robertson, Oklahoma

In a surprise to absolutely no one, the Artillery Gunner Award goes to the Big 12’s career 3-point leader. Taylor Robertson has arguably been the best shooter in the country ever since she set foot on Oklahoma’s campus. Another Taylor is the only other player to come anywhere close, as Ohio State’s Mikesell has been lethal from deep this season.

The Brick Wall: Ayoka Lee, Kansas State

Chalk up another one for Big 12 royalty. The superstar junior is second in the country in scoring (and is now the women’s NCAA Division I record-holder for most points in a game), but it’s her rim protection and defense that land her at the top of this leaderboard. Lee’s 3.5 blocks per game and 2.7 Defensive Win Shares each rank third in Division I, which is the biggest reason why Kansas State is one of just six teams in the top 15 percent in both preventing shot attempts at the rim and field-goal percentage allowed at the rim (per CBB Analytics).

The Swiss Army Knife: Aliyah Boston, South Carolina

If there’s anyone who still views Boston as a one-dimensional post scorer, this should put an end to that conversation. The national Player of the Year candidate has upped her rebounding, passing and 3-point efficiency while cutting down on her turnovers in Year 3, and she’s also seeing career-high usage. This won’t be the last time you see her name on an awards list in 2022.

The Junkyard Dog: Josie Williams, Utah Valley

DePaul’s Aneesah Morrow is the most recognizable name here, but it’s Utah Valley’s Josie Williams who earns the top spot. All five players on this list can rebound with the best of them, but Williams takes the cake by virtue of being the only one to do it for over 30 minutes a game. Williams also deserves credit for her year-over-year improvement: This is the third straight season in which she has increased her rebounding average by over two rebounds per game.

The Cutpurse: Mackenzie DeWees, Quinnipiac

When someone beats out Veronica Burton in anything having to do with steals, you know they are an elite thief. Mackenzie DeWees of Quinnipiac has more steals than anyone in the country. Not only does she top Burton in steal rate, she fouls less often as well. If you’re careless with the ball around her, get ready for a layup on the other end.

The Unicorn: Addie Budnik, Richmond

When Dieckhoff’s criteria for this award yielded only two players, I considered altering the criteria to match the other awards with a top five. Then I remembered what “unicorn” means — we use that word precisely because these players are so rare. So while Addie Budnik of Richmond is the winner, North Florida’s Jazz Bond deserves a silver for simply showing up on the board.

The Secret Weapon: Liz Shean, Boston University

The last of our awards was created to give some love to those players who come off the bench and change the complexion of the game. No one does that more than Liz Shean of Boston University, who in 15 bench minutes per game is posting a usage rate and true shooting percentage on par with 2018-19 Teaira McCowan. Congratulations, Liz — you’re not a secret anymore!

*Unless otherwise noted, all stats were compiled from Her Hoop Stats for Division I competition only and are current through all games played on Jan. 22.

Calvin Wetzel is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports, covering basketball and betting. He also contributes to Her Hoop Stats and Bet Her. Follow him on Twitter at @cwetzel31.

After an illustrious career for both club and country, Gotham FC and U.S. Women’s National Team defender Kelley O’Hara announced today via Kelley on the Street that she will be retiring from professional soccer at the end of this year, making the 2024 NWSL season her last.

"I have always said I would play under two conditions: that I still love playing soccer, and if my body would let me do it the way I wanted to," O’Hara told Just Women’s Sports in the lead-up to her retirement announcement. "I realized a while back that I was always going to love it, so it was the physical piece that was going to be the deciding factor."

The 35-year-old will retire as a two-time World Cup champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and at least a two-time NWSL champion, depending on where Gotham finishes this season. Her legacy as a player is hard to fully encapsulate, and will forever run through some of the biggest snapshots in USWNT and NWSL history. 

In 2012, O’Hara played every minute of the USWNT’s Olympic gold medal run, after having recently converted into a defender. Her soaring goal off the bench in the 2015 World Cup semifinal is the stuff of legend. And her return from lingering injury to play in every knockout match of the national team’s 2019 World Cup win cemented a storybook international career. 

It was O’Hara who scored the overtime goal in 2021 to earn the Washington Spirit their first-ever NWSL championship, and O’Hara who returned to help see Gotham earn a title in 2023 after years spent in the trenches with the club’s previous iteration, Sky Blue. Her 15-year career spanned two professional women’s soccer leagues in the U.S. (she earned her first professional title in 2010 with WPS’s FC Gold Pride), as well as sweeping changes to the sport both on and off the pitch.

On the field, O’Hara has always been known for a motor that never quits, making the right flank her domain in attacking possession and defensive transition. In recent years, she’s also been celebrated for a competitive fire that raises the level of her teammates, whether she’s in the starting XI or supporting from the bench.

But injuries take a toll, a reality not always seen by the fans watching from home. "I've never taken anything for granted, and I feel like I've never coasted either," O’Hara said of her late-career success in the NWSL despite battling injuries. "I've always been like, 'I gotta put my best foot forward every single day I step on this field' — which is honestly probably half the reason why I'm having to retire now as opposed to getting a couple more years out of it. I've just grinded hard."

Recently, O’Hara has been sidelined at Gotham with ankle and knee injuries, and the situation motivated her to really prioritize listening to her body. "To get injured and come back, and get injured and come back, and just keep doing it, it really takes a toll on you.

"People don't see the doubt that's associated with injury,” she continued. "As athletes we feel a certain way, we perform a certain way, our body feels a certain way, we're very in tune with our bodies. And there's always so much doubt surrounding injury. It’s like, 'Can I feel the way I felt before?' The reality is sometimes you don't."

O’Hara didn’t arrive at the decision to move on from her playing career lightly. But once she began seriously considering making 2024 her final year during the last NWSL offseason, it felt right. "Once I was like, 'Alright, you know what, this will be my last year,' I have had a lot of peace with it," she said. "Truly the only thing I felt was gratitude for everything that my career has been, all the things I've been able to do and the people I've been able to do it with."

She said she’ll miss daily interactions with her teammates and all the amazing memories they’ve created, though she feels lucky to have formed relationships that go beyond sharing a locker room. "You're basically getting to hang out and just shoot the shit with your best friends every day," she reflected. "Which is so unheard of, and I just feel very lucky to do it for so long."

The Stanford graduate also mentioned that the NWSL’s suspension of regular season play in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic made her realize how much playing allowed her the space to simply be creative every day. The tactical elements of soccer provided O’Hara an outlet for problem solving and made use of her naturally competitive edge.

She’s now gearing up to channel her on-field intensity into her post-playing career full time, which is a new chapter she’s excited to begin. "I don't know if the world's ready for it, like the fact that I'm not going to be putting all of my energy into football all the time," she said with a laugh. 

O’Hara said she would like to stay connected to the game in some fashion, whether it be as an owner, coach, or member of a front office. She’s also interested in the growing media space surrounding women’s sports, having provided on-camera analysis for broadcasters like CBS Sports in addition to starting a production company with her fiancée.

"I just feel like I have a lot of passions, and things that excite me," she says. "And I do want to stay as close as I can to the game, because I feel a responsibility — and I'm not sure in what capacity — to continue to grow it."

A sense of responsibility to grow the game has been a consistent refrain for the USWNT and NWSL players of O’Hara’s era, who ushered in a new age of equal pay for the national team and collectively bargained protections for those in the league. The landscape for new players looks different than it did 14 years ago, in large part due to this pivotal generation.

"I feel an immense sense of pride around that, because I don't know if any of us knew that was gonna happen," she said. "We kind of, as things unfolded, took the next step towards changing what women's football looks like in this country and around the world.

"I'm really grateful to have been part of this era with the players that I was [with], not backing down and pushing and knowing that was the right thing to do."

Whatever the future holds, O’Hara is going ahead full throttle. It’s a piece of advice she’d also give to the next generation of professionals looking to make their own impact.

"Whatever you do in life, do it because you love it, and the chips will fall in place," she said. "If you love something, you're willing to do what it takes. You're willing to make the sacrifices, you're willing to handle the roller coaster.

"To me, it's simple. Don't do it for any other reason but that, and I think you'll be alright."

The Phoenix Mercury center spoke with Robin Roberts about her 10-month incarceration, reflecting on her poor living conditions and shaky mental state ahead of her May 7th memoir.

"The mattress had a huge blood stain on it. I had no soap, no toilet paper," Griner told the ABC News anchor in last night’s 20/20 special. "That was the moment where I just felt less than a human." 

She also detailed some of her lowest moments during that time, saying with tears in her eyes that she went so far as to consider taking her own life on more than one occasion. However, the thought of Russian officials not releasing her body back to her family made her reconsider.

"I just didn't think I could get through what I needed to get through," said Griner.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

In February 2022, Griner was arrested and charged with drug possession and smuggling by a Russian court after Sheremetyevo International Airport police found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. The cartridges were prescribed by Griner’s doctor for chronic pain back in Arizona, where medical marijuana is legal. In the interview, the two-time Olympic gold medalist said she had a "mental lapse" while packing, and never intended to bring the cannabis products with her when she returned to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg.

"It's just so easy to have a mental lapse," Griner said. "Granted, my mental lapse was on a more grand scale. But it doesn't take away from how that can happen." 

She was later sentenced to nine years behind bars after her Russian attorneys advised her to plead guilty the following July. Griner was then sent to a remote penal colony where she was forced to spend her days cutting cloth to make military uniforms. From there, it only got worse.

"Honestly, it just had to happen," she said when asked about her decision to cut off her signature long locks. "We had spiders above my bed making nests.

"My dreads started to freeze," she added. "They would just stay wet and cold and I was getting sick. You've gotta do what you've gotta do to survive."

Shortly after Griner’s initial arrest, the U.S. State Department classified her case as wrongfully detained, escalating its urgency within the government and calling even more attention to the situation. On December 8th, she was freed in a prisoner exchange negotiated by the Biden administration.

While she told Roberts she was "thrilled" when she got the news, she was also very upset about having to leave fellow wrongful detainee Paul Whelan behind. She also continues to carry guilt about her arrest, saying "At the end of the day, it's my fault. And I let everybody down."

Griner’s memoir, Coming Home, hits shelves on May 7th.

"Coming Home begins in a land where my roots developed and is the diary of my heartaches and regrets," Griner told ABC News in an exclusive statement. "But, ultimately, the book is also a story of how my family, my faith, and the support of millions who rallied for my rescue helped me endure a nightmare."

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.

On Tuesday, FIFPRO announced the launch of Project ACL, a three-year research initiative designed to address a steep uptick in ACL injuries across women's professional football.

Project ACL is a joint venture between FIFPRO, England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Nike, and Leeds Beckett University. While the central case study will focus on England’s top-flight Women's Super League, the findings will be distributed around the world.

ACL tears are between two- and six-times more likely to occur in women footballers than men, according to The Guardian. And with both domestic and international programming on the rise for the women’s game, we’ve seen some of the sport's biggest names moved to the season-ending injury list with ACL-related knocks.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

Soccer superstars like Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Catarina Macario, Marta, and England captain Leah Williamson have all struggled with their ACLs in recent years, though all have since returned to the field. In January, Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr was herself sidelined with the injury, kicking off a year of similar cases across women’s professional leagues. And just yesterday, the Spirit announced defender Anna Heilferty would miss the rest of the NWSL season with a torn ACL. The news comes less than two weeks after Bay FC captain Alex Loera went down with the same injury. 

Project ACL will closely study players in the WSL, monitoring travel, training, and recovery practices to look for trends that could be used to prevent the injury in the future. Availability of sports science and medical resources within individual clubs will be taken into account throughout the process.

ACL injuries in women's football have long outpaced the same injury in the men's game, but resources for specialized prevention and treatment still lag behind. Investment in achieving a deeper, more specialized understanding of the problem should hopefully alleviate the issue both on and off the field.