Cameron Brink wins Naismith Defensive Play of the Year award

The accolades and awards keep flying in for one of the top players in women’s college basketball over the past few seasons: Stanford Cardinal big Cameron Brink. On Wednesday, Brink added to her collection as she was named the Naismith Women’s Basketball Defensive Player of the Year.

The DPOY brings her honors for the 2024 season to five and counting. So far this year, Brink has been named a First-Team All-American by the AP (Associate Press) and the USBWA (United States Basketball Writers Association). She was also named the Pac-12 Player of the Year for the second time in her collegiate career, along with making the All-Pac-12 team and Pac-12 All-defensive team.

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Brink was a force on the inside this year for the Cardinal. She finished the year averaging a double-double with 17.4 points and 11.9 rebounds per contest. And her presence in the paint terrified opposing players as she finished the year with 3.7 blocks a game. Brink’s 3.7 blocks per game were tops in women’s college basketball this season, and her total of 127 on the season was 25 more than second place, which was Lucy Cochrane of Portland.

It’s not just awards that have Brink viewed as one of the best players in women’s college basketball this season. She has several accomplishments to her name that also demonstrate her dominance at the collegiate level, including her most recent one, which took place during the women’s championship tournament.

This season has been a historic year for Brink, who has the numbers to prove it. But not only that, those stats have put her in rarefied air as she joins Brittany Griner and Courtney Paris as the only players with a total of 1800 points, 1200 rebounds, 200 assists, and 400 blocks for their career in the past 25 seasons.

Stanford women’s basketball gave their star player a shoutout via social media, which can be seen in the image below.

A crazy career, and it's not over yet 🤯🔢

Three players have totaled 1,800 points, 1,200 boards, 200 assists and 400 blocks over the last 25 seasons: Cam, Brittney Griner and Courtney Paris.#GoStanford x @cameronbrink22 pic.twitter.com/vSR5DYUt3s

— Stanford WBB 🤓🏀 (@StanfordWBB) March 23, 2024

Brink has consistently improved season after season since her freshman year back in 2020-21. In her first season at Stanford, she played in 32 games, recording twenty starts and an average of 18.3 minutes per contest. She finished that season averaging 9.9 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 2.8 blocks per contest. But this season, her senior season, Brink has performed head and shoulders better than in any other year. 

Now, only time will tell if Brink will be able to bring this level of dominance to the next level, as she has already been declared for the 2024 WNBA Draft, where she is the odds-on favorite to be the second overall pick made by the Los Angeles Sparks only behind women’s college basketballs offensive Dynamo Caitlin Clark.