Rose Named a Finalist for the Becky Hammon Award

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Her Hoop Stats has announced the five finalists for the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award, and Wofford's Rachael Rose is one of the honorees. The Becky Hammon Award was first given out in 2020, with South Dakota's Ciara Duffy being named the inaugural winner. FGCU's Kierstan Bell won the award in 2021 and 2022, and Massachusetts' Sam Breen won the most recent award in 2023.
 
Joining Rose as a finalist are McKenna Hofschild (Colorado State), Abbey Hsu (Columbia), Katie Dinnebier (Drake) and Yvonne Ejim (Gonzaga). The finalists represent five teams and five conferences, featuring four first-time finalists. Yvonne Ejim earns her second finalist nod, becoming just the third two-time finalist in the award's five-year history. Abbey Hsu becomes the third different Ivy League player to be named a finalist, tying the Summit League and WCC. Rachael Rose of Wofford becomes the first SoCon player to be named a finalist, while McKenna Hofschild becomes the first Mountain West player to do so.
 
Rose leads the Southern Conference in scoring (22.1), assists (5.6), rebounding (8.6), free throw percentage (87.5) and steals (60). She adds in a 50.9 percent shooting clip with a 41.4 percent mark from distance. Her scoring clip is 10^th in the nation, and her assist average is 20^th. Her 620 total points are a new program record for a season and rank 12^th nationally. A native of Scranton, Pennsylvania, the junior boasts eight double-doubles on the season while also owning the first-ever triple-double in program history.
 
The junior guard has scored 20 or more points 22 times this season and in each of the last 11 contests. She has tallied double-digits in a whopping 47 consecutive contests. Rose has reached multiple milestones this season, including 1,000 career points and 500 career rebounds.
 
This honor adds on to an already impressive resume for the 2023-24 season. Just yesterday she was named the SoCon Player of the Year for the second-straight season. She has won SoCon Player of the Month for all three awarded months while adding in a conference-record seven SoCon Player of the Week nods. She is also one of 40 players honored on the watch list for the Ann Meyers Drysdale USBWA National Player of the Year.
 
To be eligible for this 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. In October, the 25-player preseason watch list was announced, and the 15 members of the midseason watch list were announced in January. The 10 semifinalists were announced in February. The winner will be announced on the morning of April 3. The list is fluid and players may play their way on or off the list over the course of the season.