CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Preseason accolades continue to roll in for Illinois women's basketball senior Makira Cook, as the point guard has been named to the 2023-24 Jersey Mike's Naismith Women's Player of the Year Watch List.
The Cincinnati, Ohio, native has also earned a spot on the WBCA Nancy Lieberman Top-20 Point Guards Preseason Watch List as well as both the Coaches and Media Preseason All-Big Ten Teams ahead of the 2023-24 season.
Cook is a senior 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.
Cook is the third Fighting Illini player in program history to land on the Naismith preseason list. She joins Tauja Catchings and Susan Blauser, who were both selected to the list ahead of the 1999-2000 season.
No. 23 ranked Illinois will open the 2023-24 campaign on Tuesday, Nov. 7, as Morehead State comes to town. Tipoff is slated for 6 p.m. CT, and the game can be streamed on B1G+.
