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ATLANTA (AP) -- Connecticut's Sue Bird and Duke's
Jason Williams won the Naismith Awards on Monday as the top college
basketball players in the country.
Bird's coach at UConn, Geno Auriemma, and Pittsburgh's Ben Howland
were the Atlanta Tipoff Club's choices for top coaches.
Bird, an AP First Team All-American, averaged 13.7 points and 5.9
assists during the regular season for No. 1 UConn, which was 34-0
through the first round of the NCAA tournament. She is only the
second player in UConn history to garner the Naismith Award. Rebecca
Lobo also received the Naismith Award in 1994-95.
Williams, a unanimous selection to the AP All-America team, averaged
21.7 points and 5.4 assists as the floor leader for the Blue Devils,
who were No. 1 in the AP poll for all but four weeks this season.
He's helped Duke, seeded No. 1 in the South Regional, reach the
round of 16 in the NCAA tournament.
Auriemma is 458-98 in his 17 seasons at Connecticut, with national
championships in 1995 and 2000.
Howland, in his third season at Pitt, led the Panthers to a school-record
29 victories and its first NCAA tournament appearance in nine years.
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