The United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) was founded in 1956 with the urging of

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

director Walter Byers to serve the interests of

journalists A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

who cover

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

Scholarships

The USBWA annually awards college scholarships to students pursuing careers in sports journalism and to children of USBWA members.

Awards

The USBWA annually selects a player of the year and

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

teams for both men and women in college basketball. The USBWA men's player of the year award, called the

Oscar Robertson Trophy The Oscar Robertson Trophy is given out annually to the most outstanding NCAA Division I men's basketball player by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA), first presented in 1958–59 NCAA University Division men's basketball season, 19 ...

, was first established in 1959 and is considered to be the nation's oldest such award in college basketball. The USBWA also selects a national coach of the year for men and women, with the men's award named after coach

Henry Iba Henry Payne “Hank” Iba (; August 6, 1904 – January 15, 1993) was an American basketball coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head basketball coach at Northwest Missouri State Teacher's College, now known as Northwes ...

and the women's award being named after

Geno Auriemma Luigi "Geno" Auriemma (born March 23, 1954) is an American basketball coach who is the head coach of the University of Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team. He holds the NCAA basketball records for wins and winning percentage with a mi ...

starting with the 2025 award. The USBWA also chooses a USBWA National Freshman of the Year in men's and women's basketball, respectively named for Wayman Tisdale and

Tamika Catchings Tamika Devonne Catchings (born July 21, 1979) is an American retired professional basketball player who played her entire 15-year career for the Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Widely considered as one of the ...

. In addition, the USBWA presents a number of other awards: * Two Most Courageous Awards—one for men's basketball, and the other for women's basketball. Each is presented to a player, coach,

official An official is someone who holds an office (function or Mandate (politics), mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual Office, working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (eithe ...

, or other individual connected with college basketball who demonstrates extraordinary courage in life. The women's version has been officially known as the

Pat Summitt Patricia Susan Summitt (; June 14, 1952 – June 28, 2016) was an American women's college basketball head coach and college basketball player. As a coach, she acquired 1,098 career wins, the most in college basketball history at the time ...

Most Courageous Award, named after the legendary

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

coach, since 2012. Effective with the 2021 awards, the men's version is officially the Perry Wallace Most Courageous Award, named after the Vanderbilt player who was the first

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

to play that sport in the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

. * The Katha Quinn award, in honor of the former Sports Information Director at St. John's University, to individuals who have excelled servicing the media or provide an inspiration to sports writers. USBWA also divides the country into nine districts, naming for each a Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, and an All-District Team.

Hall of fame

The USBWA also honors past and current members for career achievements with the USBWA

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

.Inductees are listed in the following order: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 (50th member), 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, Charter Inductees
USBWA Hall of Fame
U.S. Basketball Writers Association. Retrieved 2011-09-23.

Notes

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web, url=http://www.sportswriters.net/usbwa/about/index.html, title=ABOUT THE USBWA, publisher=USBWA, access-date=8 May 2010 {{cite web, url=http://www.sportswriters.net/usbwa/news/2010/oscar100217.html, title=USBWA NAMES FINALISTS FOR 2010 OSCAR ROBERTSON TROPHY, publisher=USBWA, access-date=8 May 2010

External

Official website
College basketball mass media in the United States American sports journalism organizations Journalism-related professional associations Sports organizations established in 1956 Organizations based in Missouri

Scholarships

Awards

Hall of fame

See also

Notes

External