Feb. 10, 2006
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Notre Dame senior guard Megan Duffy (Dayton, Ohio/Chaminade-Julienne HS) has been selected as one of 11 nominees for the 2006 Nancy Lieberman Award, it was announced Friday afternoon. The award, which is now in its seventh season, is presented annually by the Rotary Club of Detroit to the nation’s top collegiate point guard. A panel of national sportswriters chose this year’s nominees based upon the award’s criteria — displaying the floor leadership, play-making and ball-handling skills that personified Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman during her career.
Those same journalists will vote for three finalists and the award winner, who will be announced during the weekend of the NCAA Women’s Final Four (April 2-4) in Boston. This year’s honoree will receive the trophy during a gala luncheon April 12 at the Detroit Athletic Club. Lieberman will be on hand to present the award, whose past winners include three-time choice Sue Bird and two-time selection Diana Taurasi (both of Connecticut), as well as last year’s recipient, Temeka Johnson of LSU.
Duffy ranks among the top 11 in the BIG EAST Conference in scoring (10th – 15.7 ppg.), assists (6th – 4.27 apg.), steals (tie-7th – 2.05 spg.), free throw percentage (1st – .905), three-pointers made per game (tie-7th – 1.91) and assist/turnover ratio (11th – 1.74). She also is 10th in the nation in free throw percentage (as of Feb. 7), marking the second consecutive year she is among the top 10 nationally in that category, and her .905 mark is on pace to break her own single-season school record (.895) that she set in 2004-05. In addition, Duffy has scored in double figures 18 times in 22 games this season, including six 20-point games and a career-high 32 points in an overtime win vs. Marquette on Jan. 10.
A consensus preseason All-America selection this season, Duffy was named the BIG EAST Player of the Week on Jan. 23, has been tapped for the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll three times, and earned a spot on the Duel in the Desert All-Tournament Team back in December. She ranks among the top 10 in school history in 10 different categories, most notably free throw percentage (2nd – .860), where she currently ranks 14th in NCAA history. She also is 17th in the Irish record books with 1,166 career points, and has started 86 of the past 87 Notre Dame games, including a current streak of 59 in a row, dating back to the start of the 2003-04 season.
Duffy is one of three BIG EAST players on this year’s Nancy Lieberman Award ballot, along with Marquette’s Carolyn Kieger and Rutgers’ Cappie Pondexter. No other conference has more than two nominees among the other eight players chosen — Nikki Blue (UCLA), Lindsay Bowen (Michigan State), Dee Davis (Vanderbilt), Erin Grant (Texas Tech), Lindsey Harding (Duke), Alexis Hornbuckle (Tennessee), Ivory Latta (North Carolina) and Leilani Mitchell (Idaho).
Notre Dame (14-8, 5-6 BIG EAST) is slated to visit No. 17/15 DePaul Sunday for a 4:40 p.m. (CT) contest at the DePaul Athletic Center. The game will be televised live on ESPN2 as part of that network’s “February Frenzy” package. Most of the country will be rotated frequently (as action dictates) among eight games being played in that time slot, although certain home markets will be protected and will see games in their entirety. In the case of the Notre Dame-DePaul game, the protected markets include the state of Indiana, as well as the Chicagoland area.
— ND —