Yvonne Ejim Named 2024 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year
Gonzaga star forward wins the award's fifth installment
HOPEWELL, N.J. (April 3, 2024) — Her Hoop Stats is proud to announce that Gonzaga senior forward Yvonne Ejim has been named the 2024 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year presented by Her Hoop Stats. The award, which is in its fifth season, recognizes the best mid-major player in the country.
Ejim, who will use her fifth year of eligibility to return to Gonzaga, put together a career year and was a big reason for the Zags’ ascension to the status of the nation’s top mid-major program. The Calgary, Alberta, native posted career bests almost across the board, including scoring, rebounds, assists, and steals while setting career lows in turnovers and fouls per game.
Ejim was a plus rebounder on both ends of the court, ranking in the top 3% nationally in offensive and defensive rebounding rates. She also stacks up with the nation’s most dominant inside scorers, as only one player in Division I averaged more makes per game from 2-point territory.
This season, Ejim and the Zags earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, becoming the first mid-major since Elena Delle Donne and Delaware in 2012 to be given one of the top 16 seeds in the tournament and the chance to host first and second-round games. The team made a Sweet 16 run before being knocked out by No. 1 seed Texas in the Sweet 16.
All season, Ejim stepped up against top competition. In eight games against Power 6 opponents, Ejim has posted at least 23 points and seven rebounds on at least 68% shooting from the floor four times. Only Mackenzie Holmes has done so more times (5), and she has had 23 games to do it. Among the other players with even two such games, no player has done so with fewer than 18 chances.
With one year of eligibility remaining, Ejim already ranks sixth in program history in points (1,659), seventh in rebounds (815), and eighth in blocks (111), even though she played just 6.6 minutes per game her freshman season and didn’t start a game until February of her sophomore season. By the time her Gonzaga career ends, she will go down as one of the top two or three players in program history.
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 and 2023 WNBA Championships.
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).