WVU women's basketball star named to 2024 Naismith Player of the Year Watch List

Each season, the Atlanta Tipoff Club honors the best men's and women's college basketball player in the country with the Naismith College Player of the Year award. On Tuesday, the organization released their Watch List for the women's award, and one player representing the old-gold-and-blue found her way onto the list.

West Virginia senior J.J. Quinerly was pegged as a name to watch for the Naismith Award following a junior season which saw her All-Big 12 First Team, Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, and an Honorable Mention All-American. She averaged 19.8 points and 3.2 rebounds per game and helped lead the Mountaineers to a Round of 32 appearance in the NCAA Tournament, where they bowed out to 2023 Naismith award winner Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes.

No WVU player -- male or female -- has previously won ther Naismith College Player of the Year Award. Quinerly could be primed for a breakout season after the national spotlight was shined on her gritty performance against Clark and Iowa last spring, and has already been named a unanimous selection to the Preseason All-Big 12 Team.

During Big 12 Women's Basketball Media Day, Quinerly spoke on one of her goal's headed into the season being improving her offensive game. She felt as if her defensive effort -- she averaged 2.93 steals per game, good for 1st in the Big 12 and 13th-best nationally -- was the main fuel behind her offensive success, and she wants to be able to create more opportunities with her offense this year.

“I think my defense leads to my offense if I’m playing good on defense...I focused more on my release, releasing the ball quicker, and catch and shoot threes. And dribbling to my three-point shot, shooting behind screens -- just getting that third level of my game a little better," she said.