Ka-Deidre Simmons Named to Lieberman Watch List
2/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nancy Lieberman Award Watch List
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - Graduate point guard Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.) is the Seton Hall University women's basketball leader on the court, helping propel the Pirates to what is amounting to one of the best seasons in program history, and Friday received some national recognition for those efforts as she was named to the Nancy Lieberman Award Watch List, a prestigious award which recognizes the top point guard in women's NCAA Division I college basketball.
With Simmons running the point, Seton Hall has posted a 20-2 overall record so far this season, tying the fewest games needed to reach 20 wins in program history, and the Pirates currently control first place in the BIG EAST standings with a 9-1 mark in conference play. When Seton Hall hosts Providence College Friday night on Fox Sports 1 at 8 p.m., the Pirates will be looking to win their 20th-straight home game, which would tie a school record, and improve to 10-1 in the BIG EAST, which would match their best-ever start to league play.
Simmons has been enjoying a phenomenal final season, and is poised to go down as one of the Pirates' all-time greats. This year, she is averaging a career-best 17.5 points per game, which ranks second at Seton Hall and fifth in the BIG EAST, and she currently ranks sixth in program history with 1,523 points, needing just 36 points to move past SHU Hall of Famer Jodi Brooks (1990-94) for fifth-place.
Her 5.5 assists per game lead the BIG EAST conference and rank 26th nationally. Her 174 assists in 2013-14 represented a Seton Hall single-season record, and with 488-career assists, she is 46 shy of breaking Kathy O'Reilly's (1985-89) program record of 533.
Simmons also gets it done on the defensive end, averaging 2.2 steals per game, which is good for eighth in the BIG EAST. She is one of SHU's all-time leaders in that category as well, racking up 230 over her four-year career, which currently ranks fourth for The Hall.
This year, Simmons has led the Pirates in assists 17 times, and in scoring on six occasions. She has displayed a knack for coming up with big-time performances in big games. Among her season-highlights:
- Posted her fourth-career double-double with 20 points and 10 assists in the second round of the Preseason WNIT at No. 17/17 West Virginia on Nov. 17
- Set a new career-high with 28 points in a win at Penn State in the Preseason WNIT
- Approached a triple double with 15 points, eight assists and eight rebounds in a home victory over Illinois on Dec. 9.
- Scored 17 points and matched her career-high of six steals as SHU dispatched No. 14 Georgia on Dec. 28
- Matched her career-high of 28 points and dropped 11 dimes as SHU scored a program record 107 points and defeated DePaul University on Jan. 18.
Simmons has been named the BIG EAST Women's Basketball Player of the Week three times this season, including back-to-back weeks on Jan. 12 and Jan. 19. Additionally, she garnered consecutive Met Basketball Writers Association Division I Player of the Week accolades over the same span.
She has scored in double figures in 20-of-22 games for Seton Hall and has proven to be one of the most durable players in the country, averaging 36.0 minutes per game, which is second in the conference.
Simmons is coming off a season in which she earned First-Team All-BIG EAST honors and was named to the BIG EAST All-Tournament Team, the first Seton Hall player to accomplish that feat since Dana Wynne in 1995.
The Lieberman Award Watch List will be narrowed to 15 and then five finalists by mid-March. The winner of the award will be announced at the WBCA Award Show at the Women's Final Four in Tampa, Fla.
