Sam Breen Named 2023 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year
UMass star wins in year four of the award
HOPEWELL, N.J. (March 29, 2023) — Her Hoop Stats is proud to announce that Massachusetts graduate forward Sam Breen has been named the 2023 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year presented by Her Hoop Stats. The award, which is in its fourth season, recognizes the best mid-major player in the country. Breen joins Ciara Duffy (2020) and Kierstan Bell (2021, 2022) as the third player to win the award.
Breen continued to be one of the nation’s most consistent players, now in her fourth season with Massachusetts following one-plus seasons at Penn State. Breen posted her fourth consecutive season averaging 15 points, nine rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game. No other player since 2009-10 has posted more than three such seasons (min. 15 games played).
What made this season special for Breen is that she was able to put together all the best parts of her game in a single year. Breen’s 2-point field-goal percentage has risen nearly as high as it was in the shortened 2020-21 season.
Her 3-point and free-throw percentage have surpassed the career bests she posted in 2019-20. She has averaged nearly one assist more per game than last season, and her 2.7% foul rate is the best of her career.
Breen and the Minutewomen earned the No. 1 seed in the A-10 conference tournament and set a program high for regular-season conference wins in a season at 14. They advanced to the second round of the WNIT before falling in a nail-biter to Harvard.
In her career, Breen has earned two A-10 Player of the Year awards, three All-Conference First Team nods, and two A-10 All-Academic teams. Breen finishes her career as the all-time leading scorer in program history with 1,930 points.
She also ranks second in program history in career scoring average at 17.4 points per game and career rebounds with 1,101. Her 589 points this season are the program’s all-time single-season record, and her 571 points in 2021-22 rank fourth all-time.
Award Eligibility
To be eligible for the award, players must compete in one of the 26 conferences deemed to be “mid-major.” The following conferences are considered high-major for the purposes of this award, and thus ineligible: ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-12, and SEC.
About Becky Hammon
Hammon was a three-time All-American during her career at Colorado State and led the Rams to the Sweet 16 in 1999, the program’s only appearance to date. She was signed by the New York Liberty in 1999 and traded to the San Antonio Stars in 2007, where she played the rest of her career. Hammon retired in 2014 as a six-time All-Star and a two-time All-WNBA First Team honoree. In 2016 she was named one of the top 20 players in WNBA history and was recently named to the W25.
Hammon became the second female coach in NBA history when she began coaching for the San Antonio Spurs in 2014. Additionally, Hammon is the only woman to be a head coach in the NBA Summer League as well as the only woman to be a member of an NBA All-Star coaching staff. Currently, Hammon is the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces and won the 2022 WNBA Championship in her first season.
About Her Hoop Stats
Her Hoop Stats was founded in 2017 to unlock better insight about women's basketball at all levels. We began as a statistics site focused on providing consistent, reliable, and easy-to-access data about women's basketball for both mobile and desktop environments. Her Hoop Stats has expanded to become a leading independent voice in the women's game providing content through our newsletter, podcast network, YouTube channel, and social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram).
Nope. Should have gone to Maddy Siegrist or Kiki Jefferson.