By Karen Bailis
TAMPA -- So which women's basketball player whose name starts with Cand is the best in the game this season? A couple big awards have given conflicting answers. The WBCA Wade Tropy winner is ... Stanford's Candice Wiggins. And the AP Player of the Year winner is ... Tennessee's Candace Parker.
Perhaps the Naismith Award will break the tie. Or not. There's always SEC Player of the Year Sylvia Fowles or Big East Player of the Year Maya Moore ...
Maybe the WBCA is trying to achieve an -ace, -ice balance, since Parker was last year's winner. Not that Wiggins isn't deserving. She became only the seventh Division I player to earn WBCA All-America honors all four of her seasons. She broke Lisa Leslie's Pac-10 career scoring record and is averaging 20.2 ppg. Parker leads the SEC in scoring, with 21.6 ppg, and blocks, with 2.35 per game. She also leads the NCAA Tournament in toughness, playing through three shoulder dislocations.
The Naismith will be announced Monday here at the women's Final Four, where Parker, Wiggins, Fowles and Moore will be in action starting Sunday.