Big Ten Sweeps Naismith Awards for First Time in Conference History

ROSEMONT, Ill. – For the first time in the history of the conference, the Big Ten has swept the Naismith Awards. USC sophomore JuJu Watkins won the 2025 Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy, UCLA junior Lauren Betts was named 2025 Naismith Women’s Defensive Player of the Year presented by MOLECULE and UCLA head coach Cori Close was selected as the 2025 Werner Ladder Naismith Women’s Coach of the Year, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced Wednesday.

Watkins is the third consecutive Big Ten student-athlete to win the Naismith Trophy after Iowa’s Caitlin Clark earned the award the previous two seasons. The Athletic, Sporting News and Ann Meyers Drysdale National Player of the Year joins Lisa Leslie (1994) and Cheryl Miller (1984-86) as the only Trojans to claim the award. The Big Ten has been home to four of the last seven winners of the Naismith Trophy in Watkins (2025), Clark (2023-24) and Iowa’s Megan Gustafson (2019). Watkins also joined a prestigious list of 10 women’s basketball standouts to win the Naismith Trophy at the collegiate and prep levels.

Betts is the first Big Ten student-athlete to be selected as the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year and the first women’s basketball player from UCLA to receive a Naismith Award. Betts led her team to the 2025 TIAA Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament crown and the program’s first No. 1 overall seed in the 2025 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. The Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and Big Ten Tournament Most Outstanding Player is only the second Bruin in program history to amass 600+ points and 300+ rebounds in a season (Denise Curry, 1978-81).

Close, who is in her 14th season at the helm, is the first female head coach from UCLA to win a Naismith Award. She is the sixth Big Ten coach to receive the honor and first since 2019. The Bruins are on an historic run, having set a program record for wins in a season (34) and are headed to their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Final Four. Close, who was voted USBWA Coach of the Year, helped UCLA spend 12 consecutive weeks (Nov. 25 – Feb. 10) ranked at No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25, a Big Ten women’s basketball record.

The recognition of both Betts and Close is only the fourth time that the women’s coach and defensive player of the year have been from the same institution.

Watkins and Betts have each earned first team All-America distinction from the Associated Press, USBWA, The Athletic and Sporting News. They are both finalists for the John R. Wooden Award and claimed spots on the Wooden Award’s All-America Team.