Rhyne Howard One of Five Finalist for Cheryl Miller Award
LEXINGTON, Kentucky – University of Kentucky women’s basketball sophomore guard Rhyne Howard has been name one of five national finalists for the 2020 Cheryl Miller Award. Named after the three-time Naismith Player of the Year and Class of 1995 Hall of Famer, the annual award in its third year recognizes the top small forwards in women’s NCAA Division I college basketball.
Howard is joined on the list by Megan Walker (Connecticut), Ashley Joens (Iowa State), Satou Sabally (Oregon) and Michaela Onyenwere (UCLA). The Selection Committee for the Cheryl Miller Award is composed of top women’s college basketball personnel including media members, head coaches, sports information directors and Hall of Famers. Fans will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite finalists when the Starting Five Fan Voting goes live on Friday, March 13 via www.hoophallawards.com.
The winner of the 2020 Cheryl Miller Small Forward Award will be presented at The College Basketball Awards presented by Wendy’s in Los Angeles, California on Friday, April 10, along with the other four members of the Women’s Starting Five. Additional awards being presented include the Nancy Lieberman Point Guard Award, the Ann Meyers Drysdale Shooting Guard Award, the Katrina McClain Power Forward Award, and the Lisa Leslie Center Award, in addition to the Men’s Starting Five.
Howard has had a sensational sophomore season for Kentucky, leading the Wildcats and ranking second nationally with 23.4 points per game. The guard also leads UK with 6.5 rebounds per game and 62 steals, while she is second on the team with 29 blocks and third on the team with 68 assists. Howard has hit 84 3-pointers this season, which is the most in program history in a single season, topping the previous record of 81 set by Sara Potts in 2004-05. Her 3.1 3-pointers per game ranks top-10 nationally while her 633 total points ranks third nationally. Howard’s 23.4 scoring average is the most for a UK player under Matthew Mitchell and the fourth-best average in program history.
The native of Cleveland, Tennessee, was recently named the SEC Player of the Year, All-SEC First Team and SEC All-Defensive Team. Those honors came from league coaches on the same day she was named a semifinalist for the 2020 Citizen Naismith Trophy. Howard has been named SEC Player of the Week four times this season and was espnW National Player of the Week in early January. Howard is on nearly every national player of the year watch list this season. Most recently, she was named a semifinalist for the Citizen Naismith Trophy and placed on the national ballot for the John R. Wooden Award. She has also been tabbed on the WBCA Wade Trophy Midseason Watch List and Dawn Staley Award Midseason Watch List, establishing her as a top candidate for national player of the year.
So far this season, Howard has placed her name all over the Kentucky record books as the only player in program history to score 25+ points in five straight games while she is the second player to score 20+ points in eight straight games. Part of that impressive stretch was 37 points in UK’s win vs. Tennessee followed by a school-record tying 43 points at Alabama. She is the only player in program history to score 37+ points in consecutive games and become the second fastest UK player ever to reach 1,000 career points and currently has 1,158 career points which ranks 27th on UK’s all-time scoring list.
For more information on the Kentucky women’s basketball team, visit UKathletics.com or follow @KentuckyWBB on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
