The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced Monday that Mississippi State’s Lauren Park-Lane was named to the 2024 Nancy Lieberman Award Watch List. Park-Lane is 1 of 20 honorees on the preseason watch list given annually to the nation’s best point guard.
Park-Lane is a graduate student in her first season at Mississippi State after transferring from Seton Hall, where she was a finalist for the award last season. This is the third consecutive season that Park-Lane has been named to the Nancy Lieberman Award Watch List.
Regarded as one of the nation’s best point guards, Park-Lane is a three-time All-BIG EAST First Team performer, twice being a unanimous selection. Last season, she had a career year averaging 20.8 points per game to go along with an assists per game average of 6.3.
During the 2021-22 season, she led the nation in total assists with 260 and finished eighth in the NCAA. She followed her stellar junior campaign with an equally impressive senior season that saw her dish out 207 assists (6.3 apg) and rank inside the top 8 nationally in total assists. She is one of just three players in the country to rank inside the top eight for total assists each of the last two seasons (the others are Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and Colorado State’s McKenna Hofschild). Entering the 2023-24 season, Park-Lane’s 698 career assists will rank second on the active career assists leaders list, behind only Iowa’s Clark.
Park-Lane is also an elite scorer. In each of the last three seasons, she has averaged at least 17.5 points per game and has increased her scoring production every season. After averaging 6.7 points as a freshman, Park-Lane averaged 17.5 ppg as a sophomore, 18.3 ppg as a junior and 20.8 ppg last season.
Fans are encouraged to participate in Fan Voting, presented by Dell Technologies, in each of the three rounds starting Friday, October 20. In late January, the watch list of 20 players for the 2024 Nancy Lieberman Award will be narrowed to 10, and then in late February, to just five. In March, the five finalists will be presented to Lieberman and the Hall of Fame’s selection committee, where a winner will be selected.
The 2024 Nancy Lieberman Award winner will be presented on a to-be-determined date, along with the other four members of the Women’s Starting Five. Additional awards being presented include the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award (Shooting Guard), Cheryl Miller Award (Small Forward), Katrina McClain Award (Power Forward) and the Lisa Leslie Award (Center), in addition to the Men’s Starting Five.
