CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Fighting Illini women's basketball senior Makira Cook has been named to the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 Watch List, the organization announced Tuesday. Chosen by a preseason poll of national college basketball experts, the list is comprised of 50 student-athletes who are the early front-runners for the most prestigious honors in college basketball, the Wooden Award All American Team™ and Most Outstanding Player Award.
Cook is one of nine Big Ten representatives to earn a spot on the preseason list this season. She's also the second athlete in Illinois program history named to the prestigious watch list, joining Jenna Smith from the 2009-10 season.
Ahead of the 2023-24 campaign, Cook has also been named to the Naismith Women's Player of the Year Watch List, WBCA Nancy Lieberman Top-20 Point Guards Preseason Watch List, and the Coaches and Media Preseason All-Big Ten teams.
This year's Wooden Award Preseason Watch List represents eight conferences: The Pac-12 leads all conferences with 11 selections, followed by the ACC with 10 selections, the Big Ten and SEC with nine each, the Big 12 with six, the Big East with three and the Ivy League and MAC with one selection apiece.
The players on the list are considered strong candidates for the 2024 John R. Wooden Award Women's Player of the Year presented by Principal. Players not chosen to the preseason list are still eligible for the Wooden Award™ midseason list, late season list, and the National Ballot.
Cook is in her second campaign at Illinois and fourth season under Shauna Green. She averaged a team-best 18.3 points per game and dished out 125 assists (4.2/game) while starting all 30 games she appeared in during the 2022-23 season. The guard tallied a 41.4 field goal percentage and shot 34.2% from behind the arc. Her free-throw percentage of 86.6 marked the fifth-best single-season rate in program history.
As a junior, Cook tallied 548 total points, ranking 15th on the program's single-season scoring list and making her just the 23rd Illini to ever score 500 or more points in a season. She turned in a career-high 33 points at No. 5/4 Indiana (12/4/22). Cook earned first-team All-Big Ten and honorable-mention All-America status from multiple organizations last season.
